


ThunderCats HO

by OneInAMillion (kharriskjcc)



Category: Naruto, Thundercats (1985)
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-16
Updated: 2016-10-16
Packaged: 2018-08-22 20:09:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 26,057
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8299046
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kharriskjcc/pseuds/OneInAMillion
Summary: A thousand years ago, an ancient evil known as Mumm-Ra ruled Third Earth with an Iron Fist with many mutants.A group of brave and noble people rose up to oppose his tyrannical rule: Through many battles, the war torn Third Earth was left nearly desolate, but many generations later a boy named Uzumaki Naruto finds the very sword of the lord of the ThunderCats. Is he worthy? Find out...Inside...





	1. Prologue and Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I don't own Naruto or Thundercats... That is all.
> 
> AN: Thank you for joining us here today. I have a silent beta who would like to remain hidden, but I would like to thank her for her contributions to the story's flow, and lack of completely and utterly massive amounts of grammatical errors. That said, this first chapter is a monster. So if we missed a bit... I forgive us. Haha. Now onto the part that annoys writers. We work hard on these stories for you. Not only us, but for you the reader. The success of this story IS based on Reviews, first and foremost. I am trying to make it to over one thousand reviews. I know that is a lot to ask, but in exchange, I will do my very best to make this the best Naruto/ThunderCats crossover it possibly can be, and I will push to get chapters out faster. I will not beg for reviews chapter by chapter, but if I do get a decent amount, I will push forward to get a new chapter out before the scheduled release date. So show some love. It would be appreciated.
> 
> ALSO: This is the first time I have EVER written18 pages... 10,107 words of story. Holy mother of Manhattan, Batman! Most future chapters will be closer to 3000 words, unless I am just hyper inspired like I was for this chapter.

ThunderCats Ho! Prologue, and Chapter 1.

It had been a long and violent war. Trees burned, the ground littered with the bodies of many comrades... friends. There was originally Jaga, me, Lion-O: Lord of the ThunderCats. Cheetara, Panthro, Wiley Kit and Cat. Oh yeah. And can't forget Tigra. A man who was like a brother to me... except when we were competing for Cheetara's affections. He won out most of the time.

We didn't know additional Thundarians, our brothers and sisters survived. They were taken as slaves. They were forced to work as servants to the mutants of planet Plundarr, and those situated on Third Earth. But soon we were able to free Bengali, Lynxo and Pulmira. And our family finally felt complete. Little by little we found more and more Thundarians. And more and more who had the heart of Thundara deep in their souls. The heart of a ThunderCat. We managed to up our ranks and we eventually had enough cats to fill all of the rooms of the new Cats Lair on Third Earth.

But that didn't last long as an evil we thought long gone once again reared it's evil head. Mumra.

Mumra was an ancient evil. A mummy brought to life by spirits old as time. Dark. But together with the Eye of Thundara, with a united front we were able to push Mumra back for the final time. But what good did that do when there were only two of us left. Myself, and Cheetara. We returned to New Thundara to try to find peace, and managed to console each other and in time we started a family, but that too was not meant to be As our two young ones named after Kit and Cat died young from an unknown illness. That was enough to break Cheetara. She died shortly after from heartbreak. I myself was now alone. I finally decided to go leave my home on New Thundara, and go back to third earth as New Thundara was barely hospitable. But as I arrived, I found the world I remembered in nearly the same state as New Thundara.

Third Earth too was nearly decimated thanks to Mumra's greed for power and control. But thankfully there were still a few who survived. A few Burbills left. A few of the noble amazon warrior women tribe. Even a few mutants. We didn't come to blows as I expected. They were as tired of fighting as I was. I eventually tossed the sword of omens into a ravine as I no longer felt worthy of it. I just hope one day someone, somewhere, somehow could revive the name ThunderCats. And bring honor, truth, loyalty, and justice to the world at large. This is my final journal entry. Lion-o. Former lord of the ThunderCats out.

Lion-o had tossed the device off to the side, wondering why he even made a recording he doubted anyone would ever hear. He allowed for one last smile before he sat on the edge of the ravine... He sat, and sat until one day he didn't have the energy to sit up. His body fell backwards and the last thing Lion-o saw was the sad face of Jaga turn away from him from the reflection on the moon.

One Thousand Years Later

In a village surrounded by lush green forest, teeming with life, filled with the hustle and bustle of kids playing, parents shopping and normal everyday activities.

But not everything was as happy as it might seem... at least not from a keen observer's point of view. There was a young boy who had just been granted a field commission to the ninja corps as a genin. The lowest rank of ninja. But because of his heart and courage, he was able to stop a traitor from escaping with classified secrets of his home. That allowed the village leader an excuse to let Naruto bypass the one portion of the jutsu/technique requirement to pass as Naruto had entirely too much chakra in his system to pull an ordinary clone. But the hokage could not give Naruto a stronger clone technique as he was not ninja yet. He could not be seen as showing favoritism, even if Naruto deserved it. But Naruto's courage and cunning allowed Iruka Umino, Naruto's academy instructor to do what the hokage couldn't. Pass Naruto, by giving him a hitai-ite. His official ninja headband.

Upon completing that unsanctioned mission his now former academy sensei took off his personal headband and placed it on Naruto's forehead, signifying that Naruto was officially a shinobi of the leaf. A ninja.

Naruto had never felt such warmth in his life. Naruto felt his eyes water. He couldn't believe he finally managed the first step to becoming the newest Hokage of Konoha. He hugged his sensei who was like an older brother to him. One of the only people in the village who didn't look down on him.

A few days later, Academy Classroom

Umino Iruka greeted his former class to explain what would happen next in their next now that they graduated.

"Listen Up!" Iruka called using his signature super secret hidden technique, 'Big Head no Jutsu.' "Sit down and shut up. I don't have time to hear about how amazing the Uchiha wonder child is by his legion of fan girls. I could hear it from the front of the building. I mean seriously?"

They guys in the class snickered slightly at Iruka's blunt statement while most of the girls reddened in embarrassment at being called out.

"Here are your team setups, so listen closely as I won't be repeating them." their academy instructor warned. "Team one will be..." he droned on. Naruto ignored him until he heard his team called. Naruto had become hyper focused on his teacher at that point, "...and team seven will consist of Uzumaki Naruto, Uchiha Sasuke, and Haruno Sakura."

As expected, Naruto rolled his eyes in annoyance at the Uchiha being on the same team as him as Sakura screamed, "Why do I have to be on a team with Naruto-baka?!"

"Knock it off Sakura!" Iruka warned sternly.

"Hai Iruka-sensei," Sakura said abashed.

Sasuke was the best of the best. He was top of the class. He was the fastest most skilled, and ever girl swooned over him, including the girl Naruto liked. But Naruto was not going to let that keep him down.

"Hey Naruto," a pineapple hair styled kid asked, "this place is only for graduating shinobi. You didn't pass. You shouldn't wear that headband. Wearing that headband could get you arrested for treason bro." he whispered.

Naruto leaned back in his chair with a grin and said in no uncertain terms. "No worries Shika, I got this. Even though this headband is a bit older, it's assuredly real. It's mine."

"How?" Shikamaru asked shocked. Naruto didn't miss a beat as he pointed to his hitai-ite and said, "I'm not allowed to say how, as it's classified, but I earned this baby. I'm a genin too. And best believe, like I've been saying since day one... the hat will be mine. Believe it!"

Shikamaru shook his head but gave his buddy a high five with a 'good job Naruto!' "It's only Natural that Ino-Shika-Cho constituted again. They are going to force us together hoping lightning strikes twice like it did with our fathers. Troublesome. But who am I to argue with the hokage."

Naruto nodded in understanding. He felt sorry for Shikamaru as Ino was known to be almost as loud as Sakura, and twice as bossy.

After a few hours the teams were picked up by their jonin captains. Team seven's sensei arrived even later. Naruto, having gotten bored set a trap for his sensei in the form of a prank. With his mask covered face, Kakashi, their jonin instructor stated, "I hate you, quite possibly all of you. Meet me on the roof in five minutes."

Five minutes later.

"Why don't you guys tell me about yourselves." Kakashi suggested...in the form of an order."

Naruto started first, "I'm Uzumaki Naruto. I'm awesome. I want to be hokage. Likes are um... Don't really feel like saying. Same for dislikes. Why? Because I don't like Sasuke and Sakura has treated me like dirt for the last couple years... and since I get the feeling, like a sledgehammer banging against my head, your going to try to shove teamwork lectures down our throats anyway, I'll just wait and get it on iTunes. Besides, Sasuke being the arrogant emo bastard that he is won't want to work with me as he believes he's Kami's gift to the world, and that I will just slow him down as I graduated dead last. The class dobe. And Sakura is stuck so far up Sasuke's arse, there's no way she will work with me. She'll act like she hates me just to get on the teme's good side."

'Okay,' Kakashi thought. 'This is not going the way I was expecting. I was hoping we could work something out to get their teamwork on point, but they already have a general idea each other and they really don't seem like a potentially cohesive group. I'll have to work hard to make them a team, or i'll have no choice but to send him back to the academy... accept for Naruto... The bastard got a battlefield commission to genin on an unsanctioned retrieval b-rank mission... but a successful unexpected boon to the village by catching the traitor Mizuki. Now that I think about it... I can't send the little turd back if I wanted to. He earned the rank already. He doesn't even technically have to do the genin field test. Okay... let's take a look at the pros and cons of this team. Sasuke was number one in the academy all around. Sakura has great chakra control, but has low reserves. And Naruto looks like he already has a plan in action for some reason. I don't like it. Although he does seem like he could be the most able to be molded.'

Sasuke and Sakura introduced themselves and Kakashi nodded as if he was listening, but pretty much ignored what was said after Naruto finished as it was pretty obvious how the team felt about each other.

'Hm... Kakashi wondered. Maybe I could fail them after all. The brooding Uchiha, and the screaming banshee, he decided to name her in his head after seeing her and Naruto interact for few moments. Fuck the civilian council. Fuck the sharingan. They can get Danzo's bitch ass to take care of that. I was root for a minute, and managed to find out all about his stolen sharingan... and put things in place to make his life much harder should he try to... tie up loose ends.' Kakashi smiled under his mask. Kakashi's visible eye widened in joy and he said, "Okay, meet me tomorrow. Um... let's go with I don't know. Seven thirty a.m. Oh. And don't eat, or you will make yourselves sick."

Naruto walked over as their sensei was about to leave and said, "You said seven thirty, so I will get their at ten thirty and I'd better not fail because of it either. I've saw you got here hours late today and gave us no explanation to why you were nearly four hours late. So I don't know what your game is, but I am not playing it. And if you say your going to fail me for not showing up, then, hey? Fail me. I'll just go back to the academy for a year, but I've already got a field promotion so they might just put me on another team anyway. So it's up to you."

Kakashi hadn't expected Naruto to be this smart. From all of the reports, he had found them incredibly lacking. Naruto did not seem like the dumb ass he was made out to be. But apparently Naruto's a lot more conniving than anyone gave him credit for.

The next day came much sooner than anyone expected. Kakashi arrived after two hours rather than three as expected. And much to his surprise, Naruto showed up literally within thirty seconds of Kakashi. Kakashi looked at Naruto and said, "I thought you wouldn't show up for three hours."

Naruto replied coyly, "I decided to hang around the general area and got some grub, and wait for you in case you decided to show early just to be an ass. And from that weird little eye smirk, I assume I got it right. But, let's get this over with. I assume this is some sort of test to say 'yeah, we need to prove we're really worthy of being genin. And you said before that you could send us back to the academy. So lets get this over with."

Four very long hours later, Naruto convinced Sasuke and Sakura to join forces with him even though it really hurt Sasuke's pride, and Sakura being the fan girl that she was at that point in time ( ;-) ) didn't help the situation. But Naruto could see potential in Sakura. He didn't know why, but he knew somewhere deep inside of her laid the strength and a power of a real kunoichi.

After convincing Sakura and Sasuke to work side by side with him as a team, they eventually managed to trick Kakashi out of the bells. They decided to use a gamble as they saw Kakashi's orange book and managed to catch the title. Naruto, being a prankster at heart realized he had seen that book before and knew names of the series and decided to attempt to 'spoil' the next book in the series as it had not came out yet. But Naruto managed to convince Kakashi with his team's help that the newest installment of Ichi Ichi was released early and that Naruto, through various sources managed to find out the plot and details. There was only one of two ways this would end. Go big or go home the three agreed silently. Thankfully Kakashi was so overwhelmed by the power of a 'potential' spoiler, he surrendered peacefully. After a little bit of convincing, Kakashi surrendered the bells in exchange for not having his books spoiled. They were now a team.

The newly formed team seven went on some some d-rank missions. Essentially chores civilians were too lazy to take care of and paid ninja to do it as they could complete it much faster due to strength, speed and special abilities to get things done faster with their internal energies.

After successfully completing ten d-ranked missions, a.k.a. Chores, Naruto and Sasuke were starting to get agitated. Upon finishing their tenth chore, they arrived at the hokage's office soon after where Naruto glared at the old man, a.k.a. The hokage and was about to go off ranting before his sensei placed a calming hand on his shoulder. His former instructor as Iruka, who also worked part time as aide to the Hokage when he wasn't working as a teacher or on the occasional mission to keep his certification as a chunin saw Naruto's anger, and realized what was coming next, the volcano that was Uzumaki Naruto was about to explode. And the only way to protect the village from Naruto declaring a prank war was to get him out of the leaf and quickly. Iruka looked to the wizened old hokage and was instructed to stand down. He knew how to handle this situation. But if he wasn't careful, the hokage faces being painted would be a drop in the water for whatever Naruto came up with next. And while the hokage could technically order Naruto to behave... Naruto would do it anyway and leave no trace, and no proof it was him. The hokage took it upon himself to find the quickest c-rank mission he could. He saw it was one in Nami-no-Kuni. No real threats, especially with Kakashi with them.

The hokage then smoothly said, "After much consideration, I believe you all are ready for your first c-rank mission. Come on in Tazuna-san.

"Who're these brats. I paid for ninja, not a pink haired light bulb, a brooding Mr. McGuffin (Thank you Linkara, for that word) who's probably not hit puberty yet, and this little short stack in a bright ass orange jumpsuit?"

Naruto and Sasuke didn't get along on much, but Naruto glanced at Sasuke who nodded. They moved almost quicker than the human eye could see and knocked the man through the hokage's door into his secretary's desk.

"Ninja enough for you?" Sasuke asked with a snarl.

"What he said," Naruto tilted his head in Sasuke's direction.

"You know what. I will pay for his medical bills. This is the first time they willingly worked with each other without trying to kill each other first. And for the record hokage-sama... he did have that coming."

The hokage simply shook his head and pulled out a bottle of Excedrin: Migraine and said, "Be at the main gate by seven a.m. with a month's worth of provisions each."

"Yokai!" (Roger That) they replied in unison and left at the clear dismissal.

Omake-

One Month Later

Naruto, Kakashi, Sasuke, and Sakura returned to the Leaf Village. Naruto shivered ever few moments as he couldn't shake one memory from his mind. That he was more confused than he had ever been in his life. He knew that he liked girls as he once had a crush on Sakura. But he met this boy named Haku who looked so much like a girl and was pretty he couldn't shake the feeling that he might just like boys. But then he looked at Sasuke and realized 'NOPE,' it was just a faze. I'm all about the ladies. Then looked back at Sakura. 'But then again, maybe, just maybe boys might not be so bad.'

"I'm so confused!" Naruto whined out loud slightly. But no one paid him much attention the rest of the trip. They just chalked it up to the kami messing with him.

Konoha Gates

Naruto looked at his home with a small smile. Some sense of normalcy being back home despite the ashhole legions of people who ignore or outright glare at him. He saw three figures at the pool to his right. One of which he recognized as Hinata in her one piece swimsuit. He nearly tripped over his feet seeing what she hid so well under her coat. She was walking back into the changing room with a black haired woman and a purple haired woman with bodies that made Naruto wish he was ten years older.

Naruto shook his head a few times and even slapped his face a few times. Sakura was about to punch him and call him out as a pervert before she heard his own, "I'm not a pervert," chant as he slapped. She smiled slightly as she didn't realize Naruto was actually a gentleman.

'Maybe there's more to this knucklehead than meets the eye," Sakura mentally noted.

Naruto on the other hand decided that 'I am officially straight. Okay. No more confusion for me. As long as I don't meet any more guys that look that pretty. Ugh...' he shivered. 'Smelled so good too,' but then Naruto saw the three young ladies exit the pool and his doubts were again gone.'

End Omake

After walking for a few moments into the center of the city, Kakashi offered, "Go on, and meet up with me at the usual spot for training. I've got the report to the hokage, and you all can collect your pay when we meet up tomorrow."

Naruto said, "No thanks. I'm going to see the old man anyway. That way I can see how much I am getting and what this mission was actually rated. B-rank, a-rank or s-rank. I know good and damn well that was not kept as a c-rank mission. I want to know how much bank I'm getting."

'Damn,' Kakashi swore mentally. 'I was hoping to get a little extra cheddar. But this kid's pretty smart.

Sasuke looked at Naruto, and Sakura looked at Sasuke and then Naruto and she said, "We think we'll join Naruto."

'Them too... my poor special Icha Icha special editions will have to wait a few more months I guess.' Kakashi lamented sadly behind the mask of nonchalance.

Hokage tower, ten minutes later

Once the report was given, the hokage was impressed to say the least that they managed to defeat Zabuza and Haku, not to mention freeing the small island nation of Nami no Kuni; freeing the country from the multi billionaire tyrant Gato of the Gato corporation.

"Well done," The grizzled voice of the hokage congratulated, "Your pay will be deposited into your accounts for a successful...b-rank mission."

Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura AND Kakashi tilted their heads to the side slightly. The hokage could tell he made a mistake in trying to fill the village's coffers with a little extra change with this time. "Oh... Did I say B. I meant A-rank. This old mind of mine has a mind of it's own sometimes." he found his joke fell flat.

"Whoa on the depositing for a moment jiji. Nah. Can't have my money deposited anywhere. I don't trust this village with my money. I just now forced the civilians to show me my bank statements before we left and I dropped them off to you for review with a note on the discrepancies. Over forty percent of my dollars are missing and tended to go missing monthly. I was too stupid to ask for help when I was younger, but that's why I am so short. I love my ramen, but I didn't have money to eat anything better. I guess that's why I developed such an healthy/ or unhealthy depending on how you look at it, love for Ramen.

"It was what?" the hokage raged slightly.

"You heard me old man.. Stolen, pillaged etc. However you want to look at it. I was this village's bitch, but now that I am ninja, I started realizing just how screwed up my youth was. Payback is going to be very painful if I find out who orchestrated how I was treated." Naruto countered.

"Naruto," Iruka screamed from beside the hokage. "Watch your mouth. Be respectful to hokage-sama!"

Naruto rolled his eyes at Iruka, but then sighed as he said, "Look sensei. You are one of the few people in this village I respect. But I won't even let you come between me and my Benjamins.'' and after a second Naruto asked, '' And what are you doing here anyway sensei, as we're all aware classes started back up a few days ago.''

''Benjamins?'' Iruka inquired to try to trip up the oddly observant Naruto.

''It's a term from the north I learned recently. But I'll explain more on that after you Iruka sensei, as it would be rude to do otherwise.'' Naruto crafted wisely.

''We let class out early today,'' the hokage answered simply, already holding his rising ire in from what Naruto already told him about the missing funds and treatment.

''Okay, you all wait until after I graduate to have early days. That's cute. And I will remember that,'' Naruto warned to which everyone in the room sighed as they knew a potential prank was brewing.

It means I am going to pay attention to every cent I get from now on, and will personally calculate the taxes to make sure I'm not cheated out of my money. See... I figured something out on the way back from wave. And seeing as Kakashi uses them... and didn't tell me about this I'll chalk it up to ineptitude of a sensei rather than straight up sabotage of a shinobi under the same banner,'' Naruto warned dangerously, much to everyone's shock. ''I get a memory kick back from the kage bunshin. I am pretty sure I read something like that while learning it. With that known, I should be able to bring my chakra control to Sakura's level within days if I am not interrupted. And I am requesting access to Konoha's c-rank repository of non restricted jutsu. If I can manage to master some, with my special chakra properties, they could be focused to the point of being a-rank, and no 'sensei,' '' Naruto sneered as he knew what Kakashi was about to try, ''I should not be held back so you can train up your precious Uchiha,'' to which Sasuke scowled slightly, but said nothing as he realized he would likely be receiving some sort of special training from Naruto's anger which was fine by him.

"I'll get it worked out my boy." the hokage promised, barely containing his growing anger about the multiple situations concerning Naruto that he was kept in the dark about.

''Hokage-sama," Kakashi started.

"Zip it Kakashi. You will not interfere with Naruto's training. You will help him to improve should he ask, as a good jonin sensei should." Hiruzen could see Kakashi was boiling inside, but sealed the coffin anyway. " Obito is dead Kakashi. He has been for many years. You cannot use Sasuke as your replacement Uchiha best friend. You cannot make up the mistakes of your youth by hyper focusing on one student and forgetting your other students. Am I clear?"

"Yes sir," Kakashi gritted out.

"Naruto, here. Take this pendant. It will give you unlimited access to the ninja archives. I am placing a great deal of trust in you that you will not look at anything above C-rank without my express permission when and if I feel you are ready?"

Naruto's whole demeanor switched. He stood at full attention and nodded with a crisp, "Yes sir!"

"And Haruno Sakura," the hokage drew the pink haired girl's full attention to which she immediately came to full attention to the hokage's approval, "Yes sir?"

"I don't know if your mother told you this, but she was once one of our proud ninja. And has a fearsome fire in her as a kunoichi of the highest caliber alongside Sasuke's mom." to which Sasuke's laid back demeanor switched, and he was at full attention. The mention of his mother, and the fact that his teammate's mother was a great kunoichi impressed him.

'Maybe some of that will rub off on Sakura,' Sasuke pondered.

The Hokage continued, "More of a ninja than that lazy chunin of a father you've got." To which Sakura's mouth dropped.

"Kaa-sama was a ninja?" she asked, almost too softly to hear.

"Yes. It is one of the reasons I wanted to bring something to your attention. I double check my ninja's medical evaluations twice a year. You barely passed because you are underweight. I normally would not bring this up in front of teammates, especially since they are male, but I can't have one of my shinobi being near anemic. And I am charging them in helping to ensure you eat regularly, and don't diet excessively. I need you to gain twenty pounds within the next two months, or I will have no choice but to remove you from the shinobi corps until a time I feel you can safely keep the weight on. Do not think I am being cruel. I understand a young lady's desire to stay thin," He said as he glanced at Sasuke who just looked bored, but Sakura blushed hotly and nodded. "But," the hokage said as he made a few hand signals behind his desk, asking if it was okay if he used one of his Anbu as an example. Said ANBU gave her thanks for being asked permission, even though, he being hokage didn't have to. "This," he said as a female ANBU appeared, "Is Neko. Neko, please explain the importance of keeping the requisite weight minimums."

"Of course Hokage-sama."

"Oh," Naruto yelped excitedly. "Long time no see Neko-chan! I never got to thank you for beating up those bullies for me all those years ago. When I tried to help... what was her name... the girl with those weird, but kinda pretty eyes."

Neko laughed slightly and ruffled Naruto's hair at the memory of saving Naruto after he stood up for the young Hyuuga Heiress. "Hyuuga Hinata Naruto-kun."

Neko then looked to Sakura and said, "I was once like you. Too afraid that I would not be able to impress a bo... certain someone. But I was given the same ultimatum you were by hokage-sama. I got my weight up to fighting class, but found I gained more than I loss. For example. I had a 'washboard chest, and non existent tooshe,' "she leaned in and whispered that part in a conspiratorial manner which made Sakura stifle her own insecurities as she noticed the woman was anything but, and let out a small giggle at the possibilities. "But seriously; it is imperative that you have energy for a mission. Your body uses energy as you train and fight. Sugars are broken down and used by your body. Proteins etc. You need to have a balanced diet, or you could put yourself, AND your teammates, not to mention your client in danger.

Sakura had a thought and asked, "Neko-sama, if you don't mind... and if it's okay with Hokage-sama, will you help me as well, in addition to extra training... when Kakashi-sensei is otherwise occupied," she worded carefully as she too was a bit peeved at the truth of Naruto's words and the hokage's words concerning the cyclops.

Kakashi caught onto this, but decided to use this moment to play his now very angry hand. Kakashi loved his sensei like a father, but he would not be embarrassed by some uppity brat wearing a bright ass orange jumpsuit, or a pink haired harpee... Ever. "Hokage-sama. I know this might sound strange, but I like the idea honestly. For Naruto as well. I would like to see who improves the most in a two month period, and using which methods. Sasuke, under me," but was interrupted by Sasuke.

"And let Sakura get trained by an ANBU, and the dobe train using his equivalent to a fully developed sharingan," he spat the last part."

"Calm your ego Uchiha-sama," Kakashi mocked. "I was an ANBU captain shortly after I made Jonin. Within six months... and guess what little Uchiha," Kakashi said in a much more menacing tone. "I was jonin at age thirteen. So if you want to bitch, I can let you train solo except for team building exercises and focus on your teammates."

Sasuke seethed, but zipped his lips. He was arrogant, but he was by no means stupid.

The hokage thought for a moment and then said, "I like it. We have been in need of something to shake up the standard lately." He then took out three forms and handed them to Neko who was closest to him. She looked back to him as to confirm if he was sure. He nodded and she handed a piece to each of the three young ninja.

"Naruto looked at the exam and laughed. He laughed hard. "We're freshly minted genin. Barely out of the academy, and have just barely begun to learn to work as a team... and you believe we are ready for this?" He asked his hokage incredulously, but still retaining the most respect he could muster.

The Hokage simply smirked at that and warned, "You've got the two months Kakashi gave you, and I am adding an addional month for team specific time to prepare. Let's see if you all can get up to the level of true chunin candidates in time for the exam."

Two weeks later, shortly after teaching the Hokage's grandson a great lesson in humility. That and his sensei that there is more than meets the eye.

Flashback

Konohamaru, grandson to sandaime hokage learned a very valuable lesson a week ago. He tried multiple times to get in sneak attacks on his now so called rival Uzumaki Naruto, but Naruto only found him annoying until Konohamaru explained his predicament of being seen only as the Honorable Grandson, rather than as Sarutobi Konohamaru. Naruto knew that feeling all to well as he was seen 'as' the kyuubi no yoko rather than Uzumaki Naruto. Konohamaru's Jonin tutor Ebisu didn't initially like the 'tailed beast brat,' so he showed obvious disdain, but was careful how much he showed as he knew the boy was close to the hokage, but would be damned if Konohamaru would be corrupted by such a dark presence.

Ebisu's mind however was changed forever the day he saw Konohamaru tick off Naruto's female teammate and Naruto caught her fist in his hand and gave a warning glare as he said, "I had a massive crush on you for years, but know this. Crush or no... raise a hand to the old man's grandson again and I will crush you beneath my feet. No questions. No second chances. No mercy. I will only see an enemy to our Hokage and his family. Am I clear?"

Sakura's eyes widened in true and unbridled fear toward Naruto for the first time and stuttered, "I...I'm sorry," nearly in tears.

"To him. Sarutobi Konohamaru. My future rival for the hat, and my... new little brother," Naruto said a little less hostile.

Sakura turned to Konohamaru who was hyperventilating as he hid behind Naruto's leg. She bowed deeply and apologized, "Please accept my most sincere apologies Sarutobi Konohamaru-sama."

Konohamaru nearly fell back in shock, but walked out from behind Naruto's leg and returned the bow as he replied, "I thank you for your apology and accept it."

Naruto gave a crisp nod to Sakura, all but dismissing her. She felt slightly peeved, but didn't want to chance pissing off this much more dangerous feeling Naruto. So she left without a word.

Ebisu appeared in a Shunshin much to Naruto's annoyance as no one would teach it to him, no matter how much he pestered them. "Uzumaki Naruto," Ebisu said seriously. In an official, commanding way instead of his usual belittling tone.

"Yes Ebisu-san?" Naruto asked, respectful of the special jonin rank, if not the man himself.

Ebisu sighed and stated, "I was in the area and was told by... a little bird what you just did for the Honorable Grandson. I... I am in your debt Uzumaki-san. What may I do to repay your loyalty to the young master?"

Naruto was stunned at the humility the man was showing. Naruto smiled brightly and said, "I am Ninja. I am owed nothing for protecting a member of my village."

Naruto's stock rose exponentially in Ebisu's book and Ebisu planned to reward him accordingly. "I hear you are in need of training for the upcoming Chunin exams. I was made aware of the fact that you were training on your own by the sandaime. I offer my services to you while I train Konohamaru, I can train you as well. I will give you more than chakra control exercises and teamwork exercises," Ebisu scoffed at the last part as he also heard how Kakashi was training his team.

Naruto decided to test the waters to see if Ebisu was serious as he inquired, "Will you teach me the Shunshin no Jutsu?"

Ebisu considered this for a moment and then informed Naruto, "I don't really feel safe teaching you a high c-rank jutsu with you being a freshly minted genin. It's just too dangerous."

Naruto smirked slightly as he looked around the park. Once confirmed empty, he placed his hands in a half ram formation and whispered, "Ninpou: Tajuu...Kage Bunshin no Jutsu."

Ebisu tried to reach Naruto before he killed himself trying to perform a Jonin level technique. Even the holder of the Kyuubi no yoko wouldn't likely be able to sustain more than ten or so. But Ebisu was knocked back by the backlash of power. Naruto's chakra was bright blue and then there was an explosion. Once he opened his eyes, he noticed Konohamaru was on one of multiple clone's neck.

"The...multi...shadow...clone technique... AMAZING!" Ebisu exclaimed, truly stunned.

Naruto stepped forward in front of the two hundred clones he created, slightly winded, and said, "I learn fast."

Ebisu performed the same hand seal and another appeared before him. Naruto's mouth dropped at Ebisu's lack of speaking to help activate the technique. Ebisu took note of this and laughed a bit and said, "I'm an elite for a reason son." Then to his kage bunshin he ordered, "Find me Maruboshi Kousuke ASAP.

"Roger that," the Ebisu-Bunshin said before vanishing in a swirl of leaves.

End Flashback

Training ground thirty-eight

"Okay Naruto, do it again."

"Hai Ebisu-sensei!"

Naruto did the required hand seals and vanished in a swirl of leaves, and appeared again on the other side of the lake, just past the water where he aimed. Naruto did a victory flip. He then returned via running across the surface of the lake via Ebisu's instructions.

"It looks like you have finally got the basics of the first level of Shunshin down, and Kousuke has been teaching you sword forms, the crippling power of the Toraryuu style taijutsu and muscle building techniques. Not to mention the muscle memory you get back from your bunshin training. I can't believe it's me who's saying this... but you will likely dominate the third part of the Chunin exams if you manage to make it to the one on one rounds."

Naruto's eyes perked up at that, and Ebisu realized his mistake. "I'd keep that on the down low if I were you Naruto. I could get in a lot of trouble if it gets out that I let that slip, and you might get disqualified for having prior knowledge to any part of the test."

Naruto tensed, but tightened his lips together in determination, essentially saying, 'not even torture would break him. Ebisu nodded at the ridiculous behavior, but accepted Naruto's silent promise.

Kousuke appeared in a Shunshin and stated with a smirk, "There's a pervert with white hair, and a unique hitai-ite near the eastern women's hot spring."

Having Naruto as a student helped to get Ebisu to loosen up, so having the eternal genin Kousuke as a friend came in handy as teaching Naruto the joys of being on the receiving end of pranks. Ebisu saw the discreet hand signal. 'Jiraiya's home.'

Knowing Naruto's feelings on perverts, it was time for a bit of fun, so Ebisu asked, "You think you're up to dealing with a pervert Naruto?"

Naruto's inner prankster fired up like a star going supernova. "No worries Ebisu-sensei. Kousuke-sensei. I've got this."

"I told you not to call me sensei. That is a title reserved for..." Kousuke was cut off by Naruto as he rolled his eyes and countered, "...Chunin and Jonin. Bull sensei," he annoyed Kousuke. "It's a title given by the student when a teacher has earned the requisite title via his student (s) respect. And you have shown me nothing but respect, and helped to make me a somewhat competent shinobi. So you are now and forever, like Ebisu-sensei, and Iruka-sensei. You are my sensei. Deal with it."

Kousuke's mouth dropped, but he fought back a small tear. He denied promotion multiple times. He was even offered a position of Jonin by the current hokage less than a month past for the 'umteenth' time. Maybe it was time to accept a promotion... Maybe.

Ebisu dispelled, revealing it's identity as a clone. The real Ebisu emerged with Konohamaru from the woods with a beaten up looking Konohamaru with a smirk on his face, and an annoyed look on Ebisu's.

"I wonder what has him looking so happy?" Naruto thought out loud.

Kousuke gave a small chuckle. "Last time I saw that scene, Kono-kun managed to surprise Ebisu with a small fire jutsu he came across watching his uncle Asuma training, but Asuma was too focused to notice him. His uncle then proceeded to teach Kono-kun to use the technique safely after catching him nearly burning down the Sarutobi personal training area since he knew the boy would not stop no matter if the hokage himself ordered it. So a week ago, Kono-kun told Ebisu to stop calling him 'Honorable Grandson,' and let's just say... Ebisu still calls him that, but he tries to occasionally call him by his name out of respect for what he accomplished."

Naruto shook his head slowly in understanding. He felt sorry for Ebisu... a little.

Ebisu and Konohamaru joined Naruto and Kousuke and they walked for a while until they came upon the fairly hidden man who obviously had some ninja training from the way he hid.

"Pervert!" Konohamaru screamed out, much to everyone's surprise, but women started glancing over from the outdoor hot spring. The man in red jumped up with a notebook, scowl and looked at the gathered group who were fighting back laughter as Konohamaru aimed his practice kunai at the man pointedly.

Jiraiya was not in the mood for this as his publisher was riding him to get the next installment of his Icha Icha book series published, or chance losing his contract with them. So this man was livid and not his usual jovial self. He stood and prepared to go express his annoyance on Konohamaru's hind parts. Naruto, Ebisu, and Kousuke stepped forward. Each with dangerous looks on their faces.

"You all know who I am?" Jiraiya asked in all seriousness.

"We do Master Jiraiya. But this child will not be disciplined by you. Not while we breathe." Naruto stated as he entered into the Toraryuu style secondary stance, having recognized the man after Ebisu made him start studying up on shinobi history when he didn't even know who created his most used technique. The Kage Bunshin.

Jiraiya was in the mood to release some stress. The women who saw him opted to leave him be after feeling a bit of killing intent radiating from him. He rushed forward only to be stopped by the older man Kousuke catching his fist and thrusting him back. Jiraiya was surprised. Not many could do that to him. Especially not in the Leaf. Naruto joined Kousuke while Ebisu guarded his charge. Naruto released a group of four Kage Bunshin and raced forward at the back of the group, with Kousuke in front. Kousuke pulled out a... frying pan which almost made Naruto and his clones trip, but continued on and constantly struck one blow after the other, but Jiraiya was built like a brick wall. Muscle upon muscle, although his frame hid the fact he was so sturdy. Eventually Ebisu joined the battle after handing Konohamaru off to an ANBU who wasn't stupid enough to intervene, even in a small scuffle where one of the Legendary three sanin was concerned.

Five minutes Later Naruto, Kousuke, and Ebisu were barely standing. Jiraiya's anger subsided slightly now that he managed to release some of that pent up frustration. He then looked around and took note that Konohamaru was with an ANBU who was making her way toward 'the' tower. Jiraiya looked at Kousuke and Ebisu and blinked twice and started laughing.

"You've gotten rusty Kousuke-san."

"Asshole," Kousuke replied goodhearted now that he saw Jiraiya's rage semi vanishing. But Ebisu wasn't done yet. Konohamaru was placed in danger and said, "I'm sorry Master Jiraiya, but not even you can go unpunished for even considering laying a hand on the Honorable Grandson of the sandaime, your sensei."

"Well... bullocks," Jiraiya cried.

"Naruto... do it. You have my okay this time," Ebisu said with a smirk.

What happened next would go down in the history books. "Kousuke!" Ebisu warned. Kousuke laughed as he jumped back as he knew what was coming.

Naruto created twenty five clones and then performed a few seals and called out, "Harem Style: Oiroke no Jutsu!"

Naruto improved his signature 'pervert buster' jutsu to get rid of his whisker marks and to give the different women different hair colors, if not styles for the time being. Jiraiya's mouth dropped, but instead of blasting off into space due to blood loss, he ran back over and picked up his notebook and started jotting down notes. He stopped mid note and said, "Hey kid, your skill's about mid-chunin. How about letting me take you under my wing, and making you a real ninja."

All jaws fell to the ground at that. Kousuke offered, "You don't even know the kids name. And like me, he's a gennin that Ebisu and I have been training when he is not training with his own team."

"By him having that jutsu, and the word prankster written all over his once again male expression... I'd say he's Uzumaki Naruto." Upon seeing the reactions, Jiraiya threw back a hearty chuckle and stated, "I'll even throw in a lesson or three to sensei's grand gaki. PS. Sensei already warned me about the 'Kage Killer.' But I give you credit Ebisu. You got that stick from up your..."

"...NOSE," Kousuke interrupted. Jiraiya glanced at his old friend and sighed before asking. "So what do you say gaki? Want to learn from the guy that trained the Fourth Hokage?"

"Normally I would beat down a few hundred people to get a chance like that, 'Ero-senin', but why would I now? I am being trained by someone jiji trust to train his grandson, barely anything by the fourth's student Kakashi," he gritted. "And I am learning from Kousuke Maruboshi. THE eternal genin. The man who's been trained by the first, second, and third hokage."

Jiraiya allowed a smirk of his own as he said, "Because I just beat all three of you without using my ultimate techniques."

"To be fair Jiraiya, neither did we. Too many civilians around that we needed to look out for. I'll be happy to remind you of our last spar in a training field," Kousuke taunted. Jiraiya remembered a time when he caught Jiraiya glancing at his nineteen year old niece eight years past. He shivered at the whooping Kousuke nearly gave him. He barely won that fight.

"No need to flare your peacock feathers old friend. But to be fair, I won that fight too... if barely. How about I add a little little incentive to the mix. You're competing in this semester's chunin exam?" Naruto gave a nonverbal affirmative. "If you let me train you... I will allow you to sign the Toad Summoning Contract. The only thing I ask in exchange is you have your Oiroke no jutsu was it? Yeah, that was it. Use it to help me create scenes for my book series. If you agree I will make you a monster on the battlefield. I'll even still allow these two to help you out from time to time."

Naruto was about to decline again as he was loyal, if nothing else. He was stopped before he could even consider doing it by Ebisu and Kousuke. "Do not turn this offer down. And don't go pouting about us wanting to get rid of you or something ridiculous like that," Ebisu warned. "This is a chance to learn a few techniques of the fourth himself. Jiraiya has not taken on a student in a great many years. It would be completely and utterly foolish to turn down an opportunity like this. And a chance to gain the power of Gamabunta-sama. The Toad chief who stands as tall as the hokage monument!"

Naruto shook off his surprise at their insistence and instead gave a small bow and said, "I accept your terms Gama-Ero-sennin."

Jiraiya couldn't decide if he liked the new nickname or not.

Over the next two weeks, Jiraiya tried to break Naruto of the habit of using clones to train, but that was one of the two things he refused to do. The other was to train in the fox's chakra. He was determined to become strong without endangering the inhabitants of 'his' village.

After two weeks of intense training, Jiraiya decided it was time to stop playing nice as Naruto could only summon the mid sized Gamaken, so he did the only 'sensible thing' and he threw Naruto over the side of a deep ravine as he was sure Naruto's baser instincts would force him to pull on the fox's power like the last jinchuriki of the nine tailed fox did.

"Bastard!" Naruto called before he passed out due to the lack of oxygen the pressure of the throw evoked. Naruto's next sight was that of a dark room and what appeared to be a massive fox behind what looked to be golden pillars in the form of bars holding the beast within.

"So, my jailer has finally..." the massive beast started.

"No time for that. You're sitting in here, likely bored, so how about you do me a favor and hook a ninja up? Maybe with a massive chakra boost to summon a giant Toad to save me from the fall that perverted jack ass engineered." Naruto asked.

"No," the fox said simply as he waved his nine tails around. "You are a rude little fuck. I give about... zero fucks if you die. And no, I do not come back after three years or so. This isn't like one of your fanfictions of the Super Orange Ninja. Yes I see that too. But I'd rather die than be trapped in a little bitch like you."

The great beast swung a tail back and knocked Naruto back to consciousness. Much to his surprise, he was still falling. It seemed time worked slightly different where the fox was concerned, but he would worry about that later. He didn't see anything to try to grab onto, so he went to his staple, his specialty.

"Tajuu Bushin," he cried, forgetting to say Kage, or no jutsu, but his chakra and hand signs got the drift as hundreds of clones appeared behind him and started forcing chakra toward their hands, hoping against hope that he had some sort of wind affinity and could pull off the low level c-rank jutsu in time.

"Wind Style: Cross Backlash!" To Naruto's surprise, the jutsu activated after a few seconds, and cross shaped burst of wind blasted from each clone before they burst out of existence. Enough clones returned to Naruto that he knew how to perform the jutsu better, and the wind had enough of an uplift to slow his descent dramatically.

"Kage Bunshin, Tajuu variety!" Naruto said as he summoned more clones which performed another Backlash which started destroying the jagged edges at the bottom of the fall. Naruto finally landed with a semi painful thud, but thankfully it was a massive improvement over the alternative. He landed on a few clones where he received the memories of their pain too which he winced multiple times.

After a few moments, he heard Jiraiya calling down, "Hey kid! Kid. You alright? Naruto!" he roared, genuine concern in his voice, much to Naruto's surprise. "Oh no. I can't have let my godson die!" Jiraiya roared in anguish.

"Godson!" Naruto roared. "You're my what?!"

"Crap! Sensei is going to kill me twice now. Once for you falling, and now for you finding that out. I wonder if I can join Tsunade on her life outside of the village." he pondered loudly.

"Oi, get me the **** out of here you no good **** ***** **** of a godfather! You're lucky these are made of slick rock or I'd climb up there myself and beat you like your former teammate Tsunade did."

"Keep your shoes on. I never should have told you that story. I'll have you out of there in no time. But we keep this between the two of us?" Jiraiya asked in a darkly jovial tone.

Naruto raged, went back into his mindscape, placed his hand forward and yanked from in front of the fox. Red Chakra poured out of the fox. The fox considered trying to stop the boy, but this was the most interesting thing he'd seen in years.

Naruto's consciousness returned to the real world and he screamed, "You wanted me to use the foxes chakra so damn bad? Well here! "Wind Style: Super Cross Backlash!" he christened in his anger.

Naruto sent a massive wave of wind which destroyed more of the ravine, and even widened it slightly within that area, but the rocks did not fall down. They were blasted upward. Naruto fell backward after the attack, and the red chakra that started surrounding him dissipated. After a few seconds, Naruto's strength started to return as did Jiraiya who looked down at the boy. Jiraiya was about to speak when he took note that Naruto's eye caught hold of something shining. Jiraiya's instincts would normally have thought to warn Naruto to check for traps first, but he was a bit distracted by this whole situation.

The next thing he knew was Naruto screamed out. Not a normal scream of pain, but one of unending, primal and dark. But Naruto wasn't the only one screaming. There was another scream. It was much more violent. Like a force of nature.

Jiraiya jumped down without a second thought. He bit his finger and went through the required hand signs for a summon, and slammed his hands on the air and 'commanded' the Toad Boss Gamabunta to appear.

Gamabunta landed first with Jiraiya landing on his head. Gamabunta looked around and his eyes Narrowed as he called out, "Jiraiya! Where are you? I told you the next time I saw you I would," but he stopped. His anger blocked out the screams of the boy in front of him but for those few seconds. Jiraiya jumped down from Atop Bunta's head and started to race toward Naruto, but stopped as a glowing figure appeared before him in an old looking battle armor, a helmet and a red insignia on his chest. Jiraiya's eyes widened in shock. He only knew of the legends of who stood before him. A warrior once known as Lord of the ThunderCats. Jaga the Wise.

"Stop noble warrior. Should you go any further, you will be destroyed by the magic energies warring within this young boy. Upon gripping the hilt of that sword, he woke me from a thousand year slumber. Should his heart have been truly evil, the sword would have destroyed him instantly, but this boy seems to be filled with good, but an evil as well. The sword is trying to purify that evil, and to free the boy from his grasp. And before you mention it... I can sense the boy is linked to the evil. If the sword succeeds, the boy will still be alive. And in many ways, stronger than he could have ever hoped to be as Lord of the next generation of ThunderCats!"

Jiraiya was no fool. He raced to where Jaga was and attempted to punch him. He then tried dispelling a genjutsu. Jiraiya then jumped back and asked, "What do you want with my godson, and who are you?" Jiraiya prompted, but was pretty sure he knew the answer to both.

The old man sighed as he waved his hand and the scene changed. "Do not worry, the time we spend in this display of my past will only be no more than five seconds in the real world, and he began his tale. By the end Jiraiya was still trembling in anticipation as his godson's screaming died down. Jiraiya also took note that this so called spirit of the former ThunderCats Lord was making it harder to ignore his claims of being the legendary Jaga. Jaga nodded toward Naruto who had stopped screaming. Naruto's clothes changed to a top similar to Lion-O's but in black, with a red circle in the middle with a catlike insignia. His pants were the same as before except black, with a claw like shield and sheaf attached to them. His Kunai pack remained where they were but there were more than just minor cosmetic changes. Naruto grew nearly an inch, and his hair follicles where now red, indicating a change in hair color. His muscles were a bit more defined as well. But the most drastic change was Naruto's face. The whiskers which marked him as the holder of the kyuubi were gone.

Naruto looked over to Jiraiya, eyes now completely focused and said as he pointed the now miniaturized sword at Jiraiya, "Meet me at the old man's place... and Bring ANBU because I might be going to jail after I beat the shit out of him for hiding who my parents were. And I still haven't decided on you yet. But meeting the shinigami tends to change your perspective on life a bit. Now stand back. And to you old man Jaga. Lion-O is well. You can rest easy. Now that a new Lord has been chosen..."

Jaga smiled a warmly at the boy and asked, "You are rather young to be a lord... But then, so was Lion-O. Good luck young master, and may truth, loyalty, justice and honor guide you."

Jaga wrapped his cloak around him and vanished into the now darkening evening sky.

Before Jiraiya could start on the questions, or ordering of Naruto to surrender the sword, Naruto leaped back onto a flate slab of stone, and using his right hand he swung the sword left, then right, then placed it diagonally, and then straight into the sky as he called out authoritatively, "Thunder. Thunder. Thunder. ThunderCats, Ho!"

The tiny, rusted sword glowed, and started to grow with each call of 'Thunder.' By the time ThunderCats was called, the sword looked as if it was just forged, and quite deadly. Upon the word, 'Ho!' a red beam blasted out from the sword's eye and formed into the same symbol on Naruto's shirt. Upon the symbol reaching the sky, Gamabunta had his hands covering his eyes and nearly lost his footing.

"Jiraiya, I can't stand against this power for much longer. You need Ma and Pa in sage mode to be in the same area with this power."

"I understand Bunta. Warn them to engage sage mode in case I need them please." Jiraiya asked warmly.

Again, Naruto yelled "Ho!" and the sword radiated lightning, but did not fire it. It lifted Naruto quickly into the air, and Naruto vanished quickly. Jiraiya then remembered what Naruto said.

"Sensei! Got to warn him. 'Space-time Summoning Style: Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" not standing on ceremony, "Kichi, sorry, but I don't have snacks right now. This is an emergency. Get to sandaime-sensei and let him know that Naruto found out about his heritage somehow, got powerful fast and is pissed. He is on his way, and by the speed he took off, should be there in less than ten minutes if not before then."

Kichi nodded and vanished.

Ten minutes later, Hiruzen Sarutobi sat at his desk in his battle attire as his side wall was blown in. Naruto obviously wanted to scare the old man, but the sandaime was called the Kami no Shinobi for a reason and it would take much more than that to make the old man raise an eyebrow.

"I take it you needed to see me Naruto?" he asked calmly, despite having his hand on his Enma Transformed staff.

"Let's start with this old man... I don't appreciate being lied to about my heritage," voiced in a dangerous tone. One that told Hiruzen that a battle would happen one way or another. "And before you go thinking some evil did this to me, it wasn't. I am the new lord of the ThunderCats, and it's been witnessed by the shinigami Yamamoto Genryusai himself. And he warns that your decisions where I am concerned will reflect whether you are allowed to keep his contract or not."

Not even Jiraiya knew the Shinigami's name as it is a staple of the contract holder. He was now a bit scared, and with good reason.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Quick AN. Story Relevant. Hey Everyone. Just a quick FYI. I use exposition a lot, especially where old school ThunderCats history is concerned, rather than writing those scenes out as this is one, taking place during the time of Naruto, and two, it would take forever to get to the meat of the story. I haven't gotten any complaints yet, but I felt I should probably explain that rather than leave you all hanging. Second. I am creating my own original history for the ThunderCats, borrowing a little from the 2011 series, borrowing some from the original, and making a lot of it up as I go. So if you are a true ThunderCats fan, and are someone who can't except some creative license, I understand, but I won't change it.

It was a long time since Sarutobi Hiruzen stood prepared for battle. Thirteen years since he had to step onto the field of battle. Not since right before the death of his chosen successor; the Yondaime Hokage Namikaze Minato. Naruto, someone who was like a grandson to him destroyed the wall on the right side of the room, and stood before him, a bit taller, and physically imposing compared to just a day before. His clothes were no longer bright orange, and his customary whiskers were no longer in place. His usual mischievous grin was nowhere in sight. This was still no doubt Uzumaki Naruto... but this was a Naruto who has fought battles beyond his years, and earned his stripes in battle despite only looking a year or two older.

Naruto noted that the Hokage's eyes were locked onto his sword. "Like it?" Naruto asked Sarcastically.

"The Eye of Thundara..." Hiruzen whispered almost reverently. The next thought that crossed the old timer's still sharp mind, 'Shit!' He knew what that sword represented. And if it truly had chosen Naruto... the title of hokage don't mean 'shat.' That the hokage seemed a bit distracted caught Naruto's attention before he cleared his throat and Hiruzen began to talk again.

Hiruzen took a chance and asked, "Is there a chance we can discuss this rationally without one of us potentially ending up dead?" Hiruzen dared not fight needlessly... especially with all that Naruto had told him concerning the Shinigami, and being denied his use if he mishandled this situation.

"Sure thing old man... right after I do one thing."

"And what's that my boy?" He asked, thinking Naruto's rational thinking had fully returned.

Naruto took off his hitai-ite and said, "I may be putting it back on shortly, or not at all, but there is no way this goes any further without one thing happening."

Before Hiruzen knew it Naruto leaped forward and smashed his fist across the Hokage's face. He then jumped back. The hokage was furious, but took note of the Hitai-ite now back in Naruto's hand. Naruto then said, "That was for keeping me in the dark about my heritage. Now that-that is settled, if you want, we can talk calmly and rationally."

Hiruzen's staff transformed and went to attack Naruto, but was stopped by a strong grip on his shoulder. "No Enma-Dono. I will hear him out... but he won't get another free shot," He glared at Naruto, "I can assure you."

It took Naruto a few seconds, and his features softened slightly as he gave an almost imperceptible nod. The ANBU forces normally in the room were sent out as the Hokage wanted to handle the situation with Naruto as delicately as possible. So when Hiruzen placed a hand up, Naruto tensed, but realized it was the signal to stand down. Seemed the group of ANBU and Jonin arrived in short order after Naruto's demonstration of raw power where the side of the Hokage's office used to be.

Hiruzen carefully walked over to his chair and sat without taking his eyes off of the 'new' Naruto. "Please Begin Naruto-kun. Let's hear your story. Obviously you feel as if I did something to wrong you. You know I love you like a grandson, but if you do anything to endanger this village..." he said calmly, but deliberately. The threat was left hanging.

Naruto stayed standing, but narrowed his now slightly darker blue eyes at the old man as he said, "It's one of the reasons you still have even a modicum of respect from me old man. Let's get this over with, and you tell me if you think I am justified in my anger.

Hiruzen sighed, but nodded for Naruto to continue, and continue he did after Hiruzen dismissed Enma. He brought him out as an intimidation tactic, but felt he didn't actually need him should he have to incapacitate Naruto.

Flashback

Naruto's hand gripped a silver surface and within less than a full second he let out an inhuman cry of pain. But so much more was happening. Inside of Naruto's mind... no, inside his very soul, a battle for dominance began. Everyone had goodness and darkness inside. Uzumaki Naruto was no different, but his was a bit darker, and more evil than most because of the life Naruto lived. Naruto was screaming in his mindscape as well. His counterpart who planned to hide until Naruto got stronger and take over his body and his life. But his plans were destroyed as his very essence was nearly completely extinguished by the power of the mighty Eye of Thundera.

He screamed, "Help me. Please!"

Two figures appeared from the seal that protected Naruto. One looked to the orange wearing boy who screamed out in pain, and the red haired boy who was nearly identical except for that feature. With a nod to the other they vanished in a burst of speed and gripped each and placed them beside each other and created a barrier. They knew using such a barrier would cut the time they had down considerably, but they had to save the blonde. But felt a strange connection to the red haired boy as well. The first was a woman who's hair was red as as thousand roses took note of something that surprised her. The fox too seemed pained, and was fighting back screaming out as loudly, but upon seeing that red flowing hair, the great beast allowed a massive roar and released a dark laugh to accompany it despite his terrible pain.

"Hey Red!" the fox roared. "Take care of the brat. He is an idiot, but I recognize this power! It is the power of Omens! A power much older than my father, the one you would know as the sage of the six paths. My Chakra is yours. You were linked with me for years. For the first time, I offer it freely!"

The woman did not trust the fox, but took note that his chakra was coming toward her, but he was not trying to influence it. She nodded thanks to the fox and reinforced her own and the others chakra, but something happened. There was a massive explosion inside the barrier. It held, but once the energy inside it cleared, the red haired woman and the blonde man beside her dropped the barrier. What was once two was now one. Naruto's eyes blinked a few times to help him focus.

Naruto glanced around and took note of the yondaime and flipped backward onto his feet and pulled out a Kunai. "Who are you, because I know damn well the yondaime died fourteen year ago in two weeks. And what the hell are you doing in my mindscape... And what the hell did you do to my fox?!" Naruto, who didn't usually give two shits about the fox nearly fell over upon seeing his fox shrinking, and losing tails as they fell off and vanished in puff of dissipating chakra. His fur started shifting from an orange like color to pure white, and his fierce features now gave off an air of nobility rather than a wild creature.

The woman in the green dress, and fiery red hair looked back and asked, "Oi Kurama? That still you fox?"

The now slightly larger than normal sized white fox gave a small growl as he said, "I told you not to call me that red. Now leave me alone and talk to your pup. He doesn't know his heritage, and the asshat on the chair didn't tell him, so the little brat has a bit of a chip on his shoulders because he's been treated like shit all his life. It's the only reason I didn't try to bust out of here sooner. But he did piss me off recently, and was going to let him die with me along with him to end this. And you go and find a way to stop that damn sword from killing us both. Oh, and it cleansed out a bit of unnatural hatred put into me via Uchiha Madara," he said as if having a chat over breakfast while reading a newspaper.

Naruto had not changed his stance. He was listening to it all. His instincts told him that the woman in red really was his mother. His new sensei however taught Naruto not to trust anything at face value. Even the lazy Cyclops mentioned that once or twice. Something about looking underneath the underneath.

Two hours later- via Naruto's sense of time in his inner world.

Naruto now sat cross legged, his ego bruised thoroughly at having his ass handed to him by his kaa-chan in 'HIS OWN MIND,' but he mentally forgave her after taking note he used the same style she did in taijutsu, but more importantly, she gave him tips when he said he wanted to whip Sasuke's ass due to his arrogance and explained his reasoning. Naruto was extremely surprised that Sasuke's mom and his own were best friends. Naruto also calmed for the most part after realizing what happened with his darker half. He explained to his parents what it was, but when Minato tried to put his hand over his son's shoulder to comfort him, he was decked. His dad accepted the fact that Naruto decked him the moment it was confirmed he was his father too. Naruto had a few father issues he still needed to work out. He figured he deserved at least that much. The family took time to get to know each other. Naruto laughed at the pure number of pranks Kushina suckered his dad into. Naruto's heart warmed when he found out his parents were in love with Ichiraku Ramen too. Kushina told Naruto about how Minato raced through the dead of night, following strands of her red hair she managed to leave, hoping someone would catch her scent or some trace of her. She blushed as she recounted Minato's heroic act of saving her.

Minato then stated, "Looks like you accepting that we all have inner demons we have to get past also gave you a touch more of your Uzumaki ancestry sochi (son).

Naruto raised his eyebrow in askance. Kushina laughed a bit and pointed to her hair. Naruto then pointed to his own. Kushina gave a cautious smile. Naruto's eyes widened and then he jumped into the air and screamed, "Yatta! Boss! I get the same color hair as my mom. No offense Otou-san, but I had your hair for a while. I think I'd like to rock mom's beautiful hair color."

Before Naruto knew what to do he was glomped in a hug by his mother. He didn't understand anything, but embraced the parental love he'd never received. Minato then explained, "Don't mind your kaa-chan Naruto-kun. She has always been... sensitive about her hair. She was teased about it in her younger days. Those who did however learned that is was dangerous to piss off an Uzumaki. Haha. She earned the moniker 'Konoha's Red Hot Habanero.' To be honest... her named was about as feared as my own.

"Enough Nato-koi. Naruto's heard enough about that, ya know." Kushina blushed.

Naruto could do nothing but grin at his mom's verbal tick. It was similar to his own. About identical if he thought hard enough about it.

A bit later, soon after finding out about the neglect Naruto received growing up, he decided it was time to teach Naruto about the very sacred art that Kushina taught him long ago... the art of getting someone back one hundred times worse than they could ever do to you... a.k.a... upgrading Naruto's status from Prankster Prince of Konoha, to Prankster KING of the entirety of the land of fire!

It was discussed in great detail. Minato, seeing as most of his life force was with the shinigami asked his other self to get permission to do what was needed. The Shinigami was not usually one for pranks... but the Sarutobi Monkey clan pulled a prank on one of his lieutenant shinigami eight hundred years ago, and this would go a long way to mending fences with a soon to be captain of his guard. Upon approval, Minato explained the intricacies of the Shinigami and how to use it where Hiruzen was concerned.

When it was finally time for Minato and Kushina to go, it was a long, tearful goodbye, but Naruto realized that somewhere in an alternate dimension, that story was told a hundred different ways, and decided to do exposition instead.

However at the last moment a glowing figure appeared before them. A ghostly form of a man who seemed to be in his late thirties to early forties, red hair, slight catlike features, and well toned. His eyes were closed initially, but opened slowly. It took a moment for his eyes to really focus. He looked to see two adults standing defensively in front of a young boy of no more than fourteen. He then spoke and asked, "May I ask who has recovered my sword?"

Minato and Kushina looked confused until Naruto stepped up slightly past them and said, "So it was your sword that caused all of this madness. It forced me to face the evil inside of me. It nearly destroyed him... but if I could have helped it, I would not have allowed that to happen as we all have some form of darkness that teaches us to be more tolerant toward one another and to accept that there is no ultimate force of good or evil. That sword is powerful beyond anything I could have ever dreamed. A lot of good could come from something like that if put in the right hands," Naruto pondered.

Lion-o smiled. He knew the sword already chose this boy as the new ThunderCat lord. It even used the pain and the torture of dealing with one's most inner turmoil in place of the sacred ThunderCat Trials. Lion-o now knew why the Shinigami awakened him from his self inflicted exile from the rest of the ThunderCats in the afterlife.

Kushina and Minato started fading. They both hugged Naruto protectively again saying his name multiple times in sadness. Lion-o couldn't help but smile but then explained, "Naruto. Son. You are now the rightful owner of the Sword of Omens, and the lord of the ThunderCats. As the sword has not been used in a great amount of time, a lot of magical power has built up within it," Lion-O slightly lied. The Shinigami didn't want Lion-O to reveal that the 'fates' had already seen great things for him, and would be the ones to secretly grant him rewards for his hard work. Although it would be through the power of the sword of Omens that the reward could be called forth. Lion-O then continued. "You may ask a boon of the sword once every five years or so, but no more or lose the protection of the power. Also, should you run across an old ghost of a ThunderCat in a helmet and a long cape, he's okay. Jaga, another former ThunderCat head before me. If you do run across him, please let him know I am okay... now that a new one has been chosen. I can rest a little easier... Now do as I say." Naruto seemed hesitant, but after a quick glance at his sadly smiling parents was attentive.

"You need to return to your body and..." Lion-o quickly explained how to activate and use some of the sword's most potent power. "And once you do, make a wish with all of your heart, and all your might. You will gain a greater understanding of the power in time, and it seems I have been tasked with helping to train you in the use of your new powers and your role as leader of the ThunderCats. Although I find it odd. I almost feel a touch of Thundarian blood in you, but it's probably wishful thinking. But Hurry Naruto... Before you lose your chance." Lion-o realized his claw shield had been returned to him. He tossed it to Naruto who then vanished in a puff of smoke. He glanced at Naruto's parents who were slowly fading.

"If he wishes for what I think he will... you both will be here for a bit longer yet." he smiled genuinely.

Kushina and Minato held each other a little tighter.

On the outside Naruto was shocked to see Jaga alongside Jiraiya. Naruto figured now would be the best time to enact his revenge on Jiraiya and the old man while he was fired up about trying to save his parents.

He thought the movements were a bit ostentatious but felt the power emanating from the short, rusted little sword, if barely now, unlike 'hours' ago when he was screaming out in pain. "Thunder. THunder. THUNder. THUNDERCATS, HO!"

The sword length grew with each call of the word Thunder until the sword was nearly five feet tall, it's rust literally blasted away from the diamond like blade. The centerpiece of the sword, a red orb with the shape of an eye transformed into that of a black panther-esc silhouette that shot out into the sky. The large summoned toad seemed to shrink back from it's power. It nearly overwhelmed Jiraiya's partner.

Naruto closed his eyes and wished with all his might, 'Kami high and low, I ask that you allow my wish made by the power of this sword to be granted. Return to me my parents... back to life, fully powered to their zenith, and safe from recrimination of the shinigami's wrath and his blessing!'

The fates made sure to link in the top CHO (Chief Heaven Officer) to ensure there were no complications or crosshairs of something so important. The Zenith Kami, the lord of lords considered Naruto's request very carefully and smiled at Naruto's use of the term Zenith. He looked at what Naruto went through and what Naruto would have to go through. Having his parents to help and guide him would be a good thing... but he would have to earn it... Maybe by facing a great evil. He then nodded to his beautiful assistant who smiled at her master's generosity. She snapped and Namikaze Minato, and Uzumaki Kushina appeared in a green mist. They did not see the great Zenith Kami, but his presence felt.

His assistant stepped forward however and smiled. Minato spoke first, "Hello Beldandy-sama. You are looking well."

The assistant rolled her eyes and stated, "You don't need to suck up Minato-kun. You know I sneak you two into the same place as much as I can. Yamamoto is not stupid however. He allows you this time every once in a while. If not it would give me a headache. Haha. But no need to worry today. Or ever again... at least for a lifetime anyway.

What do you mean "Belly-chan?" the red haired woman asked a bit nervously, and nervous was definitely not her forte.

The assistant smiled so brightly, the flowers in the room started to glow and grow a bit in joy. Beldandy as she'd been referred to stated, "You two get something others rarely do. Your son has gotten you a second chance. You are being transferred into his seal with the rest of your chakra. Should he pass a certain test that you shall remain oblivious to... you all shall be reunited in the real world. Please don't ask questions. Just throw a prayer or two up every once in a while to let us know what's going on. That whole omniscience thing is true, but it's so much easier when people do some of the work. Plus the boss respects it a bit more too."

They nodded dumbly before blinking. The next thing they knew was they were Naruto's mindscape as the bare minimum of their life force they placed in Naruto so many years ago. Minato and Kushina sensed them and in perfect sync raced through a sequence of hand seals and sent their newly renewed life force to reconstitute the constructs of their past and memories. The Kushina and Minato who were there were again fading. All four of them looked to each other. Although the two fading out knew it was their time, they could still live on through the originals. The departing Minato and Kushina reached out and touched their counterparts hands. The mini Kurama watched with interest from behind the bars to which no one else noticed were far to small for him now. The departing smiled as they merged with the originals, with tears in both Kushinas eyes.

"Thank you for watching over Naruto-kun... even if it was just for a little while." Kushina emoted. The other two smiled happily for the first time since the time they were supposed to depart and as they vanished from sight and their memories merged with those of the originals, essentially turning them into the Equivalent of Kage Bunshin. They weren't really gone. Just reconstituted into the original. .

Naruto however angry he was, was still first and foremost a prankster. Underneath the Hokage Monument laid a very large symbol. A symbol of a black colored panther with a red sun behind it. His sword was great for artwork it seemed, he thought ruefully before he made his way to the Hokage's tower. He managed to do so without losing a step which was impressive. He'd decided to tell his own version of events to make it seem even more surreal than they already were. But he'd be damned if he didn't at least deck the standing hokage once and get away with it.

End Flashback

"So the shinigami will not stayed allied to Konoha, and will offer his power to Iwa should he not be pleased with how this is handled. Even I don't know what he wants done. He said you are old and wise enough to handle this intelligence and wisdom." Naruto lied smoothly.

The sword's eye started glowing and eventually caught Naruto's attention. His eyes widened. Hiruzen caught this and Naruto signaled low to the Hokage, 'I don't know why or even how, but either you, I, or both of us are in danger. We will have to finish this discussion later.'

The hokage didn't like essentially being given orders by a genin, but he too sensed something approaching fast. Naruto slowly raised his sword in front of his eyes and said, "I feel as if there is something more to see. Something underneath the underneath... and I feel that I can see beyond sight."

Before the hokage could ask more, Naruto's eyes flickered gold for a second, then back to normal as he commanded, "Sword of Omens... show me beneath that which is hidden. Underneath the underneath. Give me sight beyond sight." Upon Naruto's request, the sword's guards extended and curled up as they had when the sword was elongated.

Naruto lowered the sword a few seconds later and signaled, 'Get away from your chair jiji. Quickly!' to which the old man did. There was a sizzling sound and then the wall behind the office chair exploded. Five nin stood there with Konoha Hitai-ite, but white mask covering their faces.

What is the meaning of this?!" Hiruzen demanded. The force did not respond. Instead they attacked in earnest at great speed. Naruto gripped his sword tightly and parried the first two attacking foes. Hiruzen leaped forward and smashed into the next two's faces with his knees which knocked them back out of the building and onto the ground on the side of the tower, blood drenching the grass. Naruto rolled forward under the final foe's sword thrust and kicked him behind his knee, making his lose his balance. Naruto quickly placed his sword in his other hand and raised his claw like shield. His arm pointed forward and Naruto moved his finger slightly and a rope attached to what looked like a single nail far too long to fit into that shield shot out and swirled around the final man's neck. Naruto yanked it back, taking the man's breath away as he hit the ground. Naruto sensed something coming at him at top speed, and he barely dodged a senbon aimed for his now exposed neck. Without releasing his captive now, Naruto threw his miniaturized sword as he would a kunai at the first of the next wave of enemy shinobi.

He, Naruto realized his mistake, but was was surprised when he heard a newly familiar voice in his mind whisper something to which Naruto mimicked as he held his hand out. "Sword of Omens; Return To My Hand!

The sword removed itself from the now dead man's stomach and returned to Naruto's hand.

"Where are my ANBU?!" the sandaime roared.

"Looks like someone took our little chat as a chance to cause some trouble." Naruto admitted sheepishly.

"This discussion isn't over Naruto-kun," the wizened hokage informed with finality.

"Noted jiji, but can that wait until after we finish this?"

The third wave of attackers appeared like the others, too fast to allow the hokage to perform any meaningful hand seals. Naruto was about to attempt to end the battle by overwhelming his foes with kage bunshin, but as he placed his fingers together in the half ram seal, he felt a sharp pain to the top of his neck which knocked him out. All he saw was darkness. The sword did not warn him, as the attacker had no intentions to attack the boy, and stay out of sight until the battle was over. But seeing as the holder of the Kyuubi could possibly turn the tide of the battle. That was something he could not allow, as it would go against his master's desires. And the holder of the Kyuubi also seemed to have come into possession of a powerful artifact of sorts. This could not be ignored.

The next time Naruto opened his eyes, he was in a dark room colored in orange and black.

"At least whoever has me has good taste," he allowed. Naruto took note that his arms were locked down, but his sword was surprisingly still in his hand. That didn't make sense. But Naruto decided to take a chance and yelled out, "Oi. Anybody there?"

The door opened and an ANBU gave a standard konoha shinobi signal to hold, but in a polite manner to Naruto's approving gaze. He nodded acknowledgment. A few moments later Jiraiya arrived with Hiruzen at his side.

"So, we found out who attacked us. A few powerful sleeper agents who worked for Orochimaru. You are lucky Jiraiya arrived less than thirty minutes after you. He cleared enough of the enemy out so I could cut loose." Hiruzen waited a moment before asking, "Can I trust you not to try to strike me again?"

Naruto's gaze hardened and said, "Depends. Why did you hide my heritage?" Hiruzen sighed, then ran through a quick set of hand seals to activate the hidden paper seals in the little room. Finding the seals satisfactory, he turned to Naruto and said, "This is a Double-S class secret. Even if you leave service of the Konoha guard, should you even be allowed to stay enlisted, I haven't decided after that stunt you pulled," He noticed Naruto flinched slightly, but just barely. Naruto was serious then, he realized. "... But as I was saying. It's a secret that carries a death sentence. Do you understand and accept that the information of what I am potentially releasing to you can lead to execution as a traitor if you tell one soul. Am I clear?" his demand was no nonsense. Naruto's heart raced as he had never been given a such a formidable clearance before outside of the Kyuubi, but that was information he found out on accident.

"I understand," Naruto said simply.

"Twelve years ago, Inuzuka Tsume, Kiba's mother, and Uchiha Mikoto, Sasuke's mother wanted to take you in. Their respective husbands at the time supported the decision, and I was going to approve one of them to do so, but after three days of deliberations, word got out to the other clans that the holder of the kyuubi might be adopted, and a few specific individuals took actions to prevent you from ever being adopted. A fuinjutsu master of the former Uzumaki clan was 'hired,'" he spat, "to make an obedience seal. He was only rivaled by your mother and father in skill. Even surpassing Jiraiya who is a master in his own right. Well, he didn't know that these particular individuals were going to use the seal on me specifically. Well, one day he happened upon a few members of the Hyuuga Elders and found that they were going against the clan head's wishes for this. He quickly went back to his laboratory and started changing the seal so that it could not be activated at will as the Hyuuga branch family's could, and only kill me if I did what the command in the seal was meant to stop. While he was not a Konoha shinobi, Uzu and Konoha were once the closest of allies before Uzu's fall. He tried to enter a secondary seal to allow me to break it while asleep. He was stopped before he could finish trying to help me. Killed for attempting to 'betray' the specific elders of the Hyuuga clan. But he did manage to place a similar seal inside the paper seal as your parents did for you. He had a Hyuuga caged bird seal on him near the top of his back which is why he was forced to make the seal in the first place. It was in a place he could not reach to deactivate, and he was never left alone long enough to create a Kage Bunshin to attempt it. They were smart and wicked taskmasters. Well, one day at the end of a meeting, the topic of you came up. They Hyuuga leader at the time expressed his disapproval of one clan having exclusive rights to the Kyuubi' as it would make him loyal to them." to which Naruto scowled outright. "That caused other clans to support him in a vote to keep you from being adopted. But other outside forces are what made your life so difficult. I do believe my former teammates may have had a hand in that, but I have no proof, and as such I could not dismiss them without raising suspicions. After two more meeting of me fighting for your right to have a normal, happy life, I was ambushed from behind. My tenketsu, the chakra pathways which allows the use of chakra," he explained having seen Naruto's initial look of loss. But his look vanished nearly instantly. Someone had been catching Naruto up academically. 'Ebisu,' the hokage remembered wit a small minuscule smile. "Someone whispered behind me, 'You are to valuable and a powerful deterrent to enemies of this village. So we will give you this one warning. You will not allow the Uzumaki to have a family. You will groom him to see you as a grandfatherly type character which shouldn't be too hard as much as you fought for him of late. But we will incorporate a way to help you remember your place. You will die if you go against these instructions. We had a Fuin master craft this seal with the same intricacies as the caged bird seal, with a few other little stopgaps. You will never tell the Uzumaki of his heritage, and his coffers shall be spread throughout the Hyuuga, civilian, and Shimura families. Nor will you retire. You will hold that seat until we feel there is another worthy of the title.' I was not thrilled, and even tried to have Jiraiya take a look at the seal a few time over the years. The good news was that the Uzumaki who created the seal managed to contact me which is the only reason I even remotely find your statements of meeting your parents plausible." To which Naruto, still bound gave a slight shrug. His thoughts were on the fact that someone went through all of that trouble just to keep the sandaime silent. He was boiling inside, but understood.

Naruto looked at his leader and asked, waves of anger in every word? "Did you ever manage to get it removed?"

"No," the sandaime stated. "The fact that you found out on your own is the only reason I seem to be able to freely talk about it."

"You're still hiding something old man. I might not be the sharpest tool in the shed... but I am ninja. I am starting to feel a very dark anger. What aren't you telling me?"

The sandaime grumbled, 'Troublesome brat suddenly got ever smarter. "Fine. Long and short of it is that Hyuuga Hinata was the target of Kumo Shinobi a few years ago. Well... they got wind by someone here that you were 'their' son. Luckily, or unluckily the Kumo nin was eliminated before that information could get back to kumo. You were too well protected for them to get to. It was attacks like those that kept the nin away from you when the civilian bullies gave you a hard time sometimes."

"Kumo...The hidden cloud village?" Naruto translated correctly, again to the hokage's approval. The old Naruto would have never known that. "The civilians are about to see a new side to Uzumaki Naruto," Naruto stated without malice, but conviction.

"They, like Iwa had a massive bone to pick with the Yondaime since he nearly singlehandedly obliterated the west combined division of their combined forces. A third of the enemy forces. If they knew he had a kid..."

"So all of this madness I went through was planned by some insane ass hats who didn't want the 'demon boy' to be too loyal to a single clan or household. My life is my own, and I do believe it's time for me to make that very clear. Hokage-sama," Naruto asked officially, "I think it's time shake things up a bit more than the Chunin exams. What do you think sir?"

The grizzled eyes looked at Naruto suspiciously, but took note of that confident, unbreakable Naruto who claimed he was taking the hat one day. It had been a while since he saw that face. That was the face of Naruto that he would trust his very life with.

"What do you have in mind gaki?" Jiraiya asked for Hiruzen who nodded.

Meanwhile, In Naruto's seal-

"...So Red... About that sword. I'm sorry to say, but your son is an idiot. And if he's allowed to keep it, the world is so screwed." the fox casually allowed the words to roll of of his tongue. It annoyed Kushina that the tailed beast insulted her son. But much more so, she was dumbfounded at what he did three minutes earlier. He stepped out of the cage, walked over and laid down beside herself and Minato. Both of them were too stunned to even attempt to stop the now much smaller white fox.

"Let's get some of the questions out of the way that Naruto didn't get to yet. "Yes, I am still really me, but the sword dragged out about thirty five percent of my chakra, and even purified it along with the rest of me when you helped your pup. I just did a look see and his chakra pathways are a bit smaller now, but he still has access to a butt crack load of chakra. But the sword somehow solidified the coils... quite a lot if I am not mistaken. His control will be something interesting to see. He always had trouble with control because of me, but as of now... because of the extremely long hours he's recently put into control, on top of what the sword did to him... he might have a medical ninja's level of control.

Minato, his wits regained gently gripped Kushina's hand and asked, "Why should we trust anything you say?"

A cage appeared around Minato and Kushina, bonds and all appeared on them, and Kurama said, "Because I could have done this at any time. Things have changed. I am not the same as I was thirteen years ago. I am going to release you now. If you try something stupid... I WILL defend myself. Oh, and before I let you out, I will only say this once. I AM sorry I killed you both. But I have been trapped within vessels for over sixty years now. So I am not exactly happy about my living conditions. But the sword managed to heal a great deal of that hatred. But not all of it. The boy will have to prove himself worthy before I truly give myself over and help him outside of the traditional healing I have been doing for his ungrateful ass. Clear?"

To say the two parents were shocked would have been an understatement. The now three tailed fox's intelligent speech. His wise, old eyes. They looked at each other, then finally nodded an agreement to the fox.

Lion-o once again appeared as the cage vanished. The fox glanced at the red haired man and stated, "So you've returned pussycat?"

Lion-o didn't even flinch, and rolled with it. "With this beautiful mane of hair? It's even in my name. I hail from the mighty Lions of both Thundera and Old Earth. But also from humans as Thundarians were born of some... not so nice experimentation of the Mutant race some odd five thousand years past.

Kushina stepped forward and gave him the once over then asked, "In detail, who are you to my son?"

"Not one for dancing around an issue are you? Good. Makes this easier. First, I'd like to point out I did just help your son get to safety, and from what I can feel, he is now with an two incredibly powerful individuals. Even in here, we can feel he is safe. His life is in no imminent danger, or else his spirit would have warned us in some way. I believe your Fox compatriot can confirm my words. Now, Like your son is now, I was a former lord of a race of half cat, half human hybrids. I was not a demon or some incarnation of one," he glanced at the fox and consoled, "No offense."

"None taken. I'm actually a tailed beast. I don't hail from some underworld filled with ancient evils etc. Common misconception. My father was actually the one who brought Ninshuu, the earliest form of Ninjutsu meant for peace to this world. It draws on Chakra. This generation of warrior's source of power. And it can be formidable when utilized correctly. Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on which side of the fence you land, it can be dangerous for some of the more foolish who are gifted with the ability to learn to access it. But I have intruded on your lesson. Please continue."

"Thank you tailed beast-san." Lion-o replied respectfully to which Minato and Kushina's jaws nearly fell to the floor at the civility between the two.

Kurama took note of this, and fought back a small chuckle.

Lion-o continued, "We were a race that were seen as abominations on the original Earth here and so the scientist who created the hybrid process along with us where banished from the planet. We had much better technology back then," he cut them off before they could ask. "We, and by we, I mean our ancestors were treated like less than second class citizens on the planet Thundera until one day we rose up against our taskmasters, the scientist. We united against a common foe and eventually took on the name Thunderians as we were then of the planet Thundera. We were not initially a peaceful people. There were many wars in which we plundered the planet, forcing others to fall in line. We became no better than our former oppressors." Lion-o stopped for a moment to clarify his intentions as Minato and Kushina looked less than pleased by this man's words. "You are only hearing the beginning of our history. We didn't remain conquerors, as we were soon conquered ourselves. An ancient evil from third Earth had conquered his world in search of a jewel. A jewel broken into ten pieces. One such piece is the Eye of Thundera which Naruto now wields." Lion-o waited for a question, then started again as none came. "Mumm-ra, an ancient Pharaoh from the very first thousand years of the original Earth's history before the numbers were added," Lion-o joked lightly, "He studied from mystical scripts of ancient wizards, and ascended beings who left their mortal coil behind. He found that the use of the more noble scripts would not give him nearly the power he desired, so he called upon the ancient spirits of evil and requested them endow him with untold dark powers. He surrendered his life, and part of his very soul, but he was granted that power. But Mumm-ra was foolish in keeping the same manuscripts on his ship when he conquered Thundera. A few Thunderians scholars were aware of the languages used in the text, and were able to gain their own unique powers and created a symbol to unite them under a single secret banner. Some of the later generations mistakenly refer to it as black panther, but that was to throw off anyone who might misuse that information... as information is power. It is the Midnight Lioness, or also called, the Black Lioness. A very few 'loyal' Thunderians were trusted to help Mumm-ra in his search for the jewels, but one day Mumm-ra found the largest of the Jewels. The Thunderians of the time knew that if he managed to weaponize the power of the jewel, they would never be free. Trey, leader of one of the secret cells of rebels called together a summit of Thunderians and made plans to steal the jewel. Once in the hands of the Thunderians, the jewel was crafted into a sword, and thanks to Mumm-ra's arrogance in bringing the ancient scrolls aboard his ship and allowing the few mystics to gain much wisdom and power, though still not enough to defeat Mumm-ra.

Mumm-ra had a sword commissioned for the jewel to be fitted in. He planned to finish the project after he returned with another jewel he believed his dispatched crew might have located. While gone, those loyal to Trey retrieved the jewel with much danger to themselves. The mystics placed a spell over the jewel so that it could not be used by evil, and no evil could remove the spell, which made Mumm-ra's claim on the jewel pointless by that point. But that was not the only problem. Now that the jewel was protected, it was engraved with a Black Lioness face on one side, and a cat's eye on the other. It was then placed in the sword which sealed the jewel in, but no one could utilize it's powers. No one knew how. Not even the mystics. The Thunderians were running out of time. They feared what Mumm-ra would do once he found out they'd enchanted the sword to prevent him from using it and considered turning on Trey. Trey then remembered that Mumm-ra always called on the Ancient Spirits of Evil to draw on his darkest of powers. One of the female mystics stepped forward in understanding and called forth the the Ancient Spirits of Truth, Honor, Justice, and Loyalty. Much to their surprise, the spirits answered as four white silhouettes appeared before the group. Upon explaining what they were trying to accomplish, the four spoken in hushed tones. To quiet to be heard before one of the two female spirits stepped forward and looked at Trey. After a moment, she told him how she felt the goodness in him and how he was to become King of the Thunderians, and with the sword as proof of his lordship. She then offered herself as a sacrifice for good. She appeared to fade as if into dust. But the dust didn't just fade. It merged with the Jewel that was now encrusted in the sword. The Black Lioness turned into another cat's eye. The sword then levitated off of the table and over to Trey's hand. Upon touching it, his eyes flashed gold for but a second. His clothes changed from that of a simple mechanic to those of pure royalty. A purple robe covering his new battle attire. Over the course of the next thirteen hours, Trey battled Mumm-ra upon his return to the ship. No one dared interfere, even on Mumm-ra's orders as they were too scared of this new power shown by the mysterious orange haired Thunderian."

Lion-o stopped to take a breath and took note that the two warriors stood with bated breath themselves. "Well, the good news was the ancient spirit of good helped Trey defeat Mumm-ra, but Mumm-ra was not one to be trifled with. He returned many times over the centuries. Usually when the younger generations were determined that Mumm-ra was only a myth. Each time the damage got worse and worse until one day a King arose and commisioned the ThunderCats. He needed an army with special abilities to help keep the recaptured Thundera safe. So after a while, the sword of omens started to amplify the natural Abilities of Loyal and Just ThunderCats. The leader at the time the leader prayed for help when Mumm-ra returned, and once again the ThunderCats prevailed, but with a great loss. The process continued until Jaga took over my father's position as leader and King of the Thunderians. He was a wise old cat. He used his wisdom of the ancients to protect Thundera, making it harder and Harder for Mumm-ra to even step foot on the planet, so Mumm-ra set off a bomb. Not an ordinary bomb that can be repaired afterward, and rebuilt soon after, but one made of magic and science that would make the very air toxic to any living thing for years to come. A few of us escaped in the Royal flagship, but many others had not sadly. Only seven nobles managed to escape. And that was because Jaga forced the issue. We were sad, but we knew of one place we could rebuild. Our original home as many species had arose there. It was no longer filled with such un-accepting and hate filled humans."

"A few days into our journey, we were ambushed by a group of mutants under Mumm-ra's command. He didn't want us to make it to Third Earth under any circumstances, as we might be able to find allies to help join in the fight against him. And Mumm-ra didn't dare use the same tactic on Third Earth as he'd have no one left to rule. We were being beaten brutally. Jaga didn't have the sword of Omens with him on the bridge. It was in the weapons room. I was told to run as I was the youngest at the time. Instead of hiding, I ran into the weapons room, and looked for anything that could help my friends. I saw the sword of Omens. It didn't accept anyone's touch lightly. I thought for a moment, but then I said to the sword, 'the current lord is in danger. And he dare not call out to you as you might destroy the ship in hopes of helping your master. Please allow me to use your power to help my friends.' Without hesitation, the sword's eye glowed and then rose and floated over to me. I reached out and grabbed it. It's massive weight made me nearly drop it. Which reminds me, 'how is it Naruto can control the sword's weight so easily so young?"

Kushina smiled and said, "Ninja," as if that answered everything. Minato was a little more helpful when he answered, "We are in a warrior world. Some children are taught to fight from the age they can walk. That includes strength training."

Lion-o nodded his thanks then continued, "The door behind me opened and a large reptilian creature stepped inside and went to attack me seeing as I wasn't the leader of the ThunderCats and could hold the sword, I might be useful. I managed to lift the sword toward him and called out what I saw Jaga do many times before, 'ThunderCats, Ho!' The sword sent out a blast of lightning which slammed lizard against the wall outside of the door. I forced myself to continue on. I found the strength to lift the sword and raced to the bridge where my friends had essentially been taken hostage. I took a deep breath and ran into the room, pointed the sword at the first person who wasn't known to me. A large birdlike man and again called out, 'Ho!' to which the bird man was thrown against the wall. The ThunderCats stood in awe, but annoyed, I said, 'I could use some help here!' After a short battle, we had retaken the ThunderCat One. Jaga had ordered us into Suspended animation for the rest of the journey as it would take us at least twenty more years to get their. But before he did, he informed Panthro, his second in command that I would be the new Lord as he would not make it more than seventeen more years, and Panthro would wake up to finish piloting the vessel on his own should Jaga parish as he predicts due to his older age. Panthro told me this after we awoke on third Earth. No one had aged do to suspended animation... except me. I aged seven years. But that is not important right now. Long story short. I have a lot of experience as Lord of the ThunderCats, and some important people upstairs said I dropped the ball a little near the end of my tenure, and I am to make it up by helping Naruto to be the best ThunderCat he can be.

Back at the room where Naruto was held, Hokage Tower.

"... and that is how I know of the ThunderCats. I was a paleontologist too my boy. They called me 'professor' for a reason. I know a little bit more than the shinobi arts," he said with a smirk.

Naruto shivered slightly out of a small bit of fear, and respect for the Sandaime Hokage. After Naruto explained his plan, he asked why the Hokage looked so crestfallen when he'd seen his new sword. After about an hour of experimentation, Naruto and Hiruzen found a way to keep the sword from being stolen from Naruto... at least for the time being. It seemed the sword would could be knocked from his hand, but if Naruto gripped the sword with Chakra, it would respond in kind, and use it's mystical properties to create an invisible seal. That seal prevents others from removing the sword from his hands, and the sword would protect him somewhat if he was knocked unconscious.

Hiruzen then returned to his office and called a meeting with his councils on Naruto's recommendation as he knew some higher ups in the village would do something stupid such as try to force Naruto to give the sword to the Uchiha boy, or one of the elders would try to take it for 'safe' keeping. It was time to nip that in the bud before it even got started.

"Um... Naruto started. My...dad has something he wants to say. I sent him updates on what was going on. He stated, as a hokage he was cleared for it anyway. Wait a minutes! Otou-san? You're still here?! It worked!"

Inside of Naruto's head Minato smiled slightly and said, "Sort of son. Whatever you did to keep us here for a bit longer helped. Thank you." not revealing that the other two had merged with them. Hopefully Naruto would never have to know he lost one pair of parents when he got his original ones back.

Naruto looked at Hiruzen and Jiraiya and said, "My dad and mom's spirit's are still inside of me for the time being. Woo hoo!" his childlike demeanor back for just a moment. He grew and matured a lot in a single day, but the overwhelming joy of knowing he would be able to spend even a moment more with his parents was too much for him to keep in. "Kaa-chan?" he asked nervously.

"What do you think? Ya know? You didn't think I would leave my sochi just yet did you?" she asked loudly. Naruto then looked to the two older nin in front of him and said, "Leave the meeting to him. He will work with me to make it go as smoothly as possible. And if you try to do something foolish, he is going to have me...hehe... write where you hide your icha icha collections old man. Hehe. Naruto snickered. Hiruzen's eyes widened. Not even Jiraiya found out that secret. Minato found out on accident that he read his student's books. Jiraiya only smirked. They officially had no way to not believe anything Naruto said from that point on.

Hiruzen left first, and Jiraiya waited with Naruto until called.

Jiraiya accompanied him to the council chambers where Naruto stood at attention, and took note of the fully assembled Shinobi and Civilian councils. He bit down 'hard' on his tongue to prevent a biting remark at some of the civilian council who treated him with such scorn throughout the years. A lot of them were shop owners in the village as well.

"Thank you for coming Naruto-kun." the hokage welcomed warmly, much to many civilians and even a few shinobi's disdain.

"How may I serve, Hokage-sama?" Naruto asked in a tone of respect most hadn't seen from him. He continued to take in who looked at him, who ignored him, and who showed outright hatred of him. He wore an orange jacket with a hoodie which Jiraiya pulled out of a storage scroll he happened to have on him. It, the scroll said Happy Birthday Naruto on it. Naruto's mouth dropped, but held back a small tear. His next birthday was not that far away, but it meant a lot. And it served the purpose of concealing the changes he was going through in addition to the Sword of Omens.

"Naruto, is it true that you saved by a sword of some sort during your training with Jiraiya?" Hiruzen asked 'innocently' enough. "As it would make sense of you utilizing one now that you are being trained in Kenjutsu," he played off well.

Naruto was genuinely annoyed by that and said as such, "I really wish you hadn't revealed that portion hokage-sama. I was hoping to use keep it hidden until the chunin exams."

Hiruzen realized his mistake, and ordered, "I understand. This information is not to be released out of this room. Any word of Naruto having learned Kenjutsu outside of it, all of you will have your minds checked by a random Yamanaka of my choosing, am I clear?"

What the hokage just did was unprecedented. Everyone nodded their understanding, despite a lot of resentment from both sides, but knew it must be extremely important if the hokage was willing to do something for Naruto of that magnitude.

Naruto thanked the hokage then looked to Jiraiya who signed before nodding. "Ero-er.. I mean Jiraiya-sensei and I were training earlier today when..."

"You were training with one of the legendary sanin?" the head of the Yamanaka clan asked in surprise.

Naruto took note of his bright blond hair as asked, "Yamanaka-sama?" Naruto respectfully clarified. The man nodded back in a way that said, 'I thank you for your respect.' to which Naruto smiled slightly as he answered. "He lost a bet to me. He bet me I could not tell him a prank I did that would shock him. Fortunately he'd been out of the village when I was... in a bit more of a rebellious stage and defaced the monument.'' to which a few chuckles sounded, even from some of the less stuck up civilians.

Naruto then continued, "I over reached for an attack and fell over the side of the ravine since I was going too fast to grip the ground with my chakra, my momentum was beyond what I could control and I went flying over the side. I used my newly learn Cross Backlash attack in combination with a good deal of Kage Bunshin. It was enough to destroy some of the jagged rocks beneath my where I was falling, and the updraft made from the attack ended up saving me from the impact which I would have had if I hadn't started the basics of my nature manipulation training. After a few moments, I opened my eyes and glanced to my right. My eye caught something almost glimmering, like a knife of some sort. I figured since I used my technique, any and all possible traps should have been destroyed. In my ignorance I touched it."

Naruto then looked at the hokage who stated, as previously planned, "It's alright Naruto. Everyone in this room is aware of your... burden." he played carefully.

"Understood hokage-sama. When I touched the sword a pain shot through my entire body. A pain like no other. Like no beating I've ever received," he intentionally glared at some of the civilians, as he remembered some from before he looked like he could actually get promoted to gennin. And that too was part of the reason the Bunshin's importance was increased for the academy graduation. As Naruto's chaka levels were so high, and so potent, he would never be able to create a viable standard Bunshin. He glared a bit at the shinobi side too because of some of their clan member's beating him too. But they would remain in the dark about that for the time being.

Some of the civilian side grinned evilly at knowing the 'demon,' the nine tailed fox in human form suffered. "Once my hand gripped the sword, I could not let it go initially."

A man hidden in the shadows near the back of the room asked, "So where is the sword now Naruto-san?"

Naruto's eyes blinked a few times as he heard a bored sounding voice that sounded like a slightly deeper than usual Nara Shikamaru, "Shikamaru?" The older man leaned back with a small chuckle and said, " 'Fraid not. That would be my son."

"Oh.." Naruto allowed, "My apologies Nara-sama." he said with a bow. He was getting tired of the super respectful etiquette he was putting on, but he knew he had to for now.

"Shikaku-san is fine my boy," appreciating the boy's show of respect.

The sword is right here on my person," he pulled back the side of his jacket and revealed the claw shield which held the sword. "I would not recommend anyone besides me trying to touch it however. Upon speaking with Hokage-sama, as he knew of the legends and some of the history behind the sword, it's somewhat sentient." Naruto had no idea how right he was with that statement. "And if the sword has chosen you, it's safe, but anyone else who tries may receive a backlash of power as Jiraiya-sama learned the hard way when he came to collect me a short while ago. I will leave that story for him to tell at another time should he choose, else we get too off track. Pain. I was in so much pain, but then something miraculous happened. When the tailed beast was sealed inside of me, it seems the yondaime sealed part of his own life force, part of his very spirit, as well as his wife's into me so that they might live on and assist me gain control over the fox's powers should the need arise to use them in protection of Konoha..."

"Lies," a brown haired civilian council roared, much to the hokage's surprise, as she was once one of his best and most respectful shinobi.

"Haruno-san, Control yourself!" Hiruzen ordered.

Slightly abashed, she lowered her head and submitted, "Yes hokage-sama."

Naruto looked to her, one of them who had that look of disdain on her face. "You... Haruna-san," Naruto spoke kindly. "You're my teammate's mother aren't you? Haruno Sakura?"

A little taken aback by his gentle tone, she nodded as she didn't trust her voice to speak. Naruto then continued. "For a time she was quite nice to me. But then she became obsessed with the golden prince of Konoha. I am not making fun or anything. But I think I am beginning to understand your anger towards me. My kaa-chan is really here, and she told me who you actually are. You were a distant cousin to her. The red hair skipped you, but that explains why Sakura's hair is pink. I always thought she colored it... but she is part Uzumaki... I'm not actually alone." Naruto almost whispered. 'I have even more family now, if I can somehow warm Mebuki-san's heart.

Mebuki was at war within herself. She never would have considered Naruto's last name actually being Uzumaki as hers had been before she married. It wasn't a random name given to him as most though. But he was the fox she tried to tell herself. Naruto smiled sadly as he could tell she was torn over this.

"Haruno-san, you were a Kunoichi. One of the best from what the old man hokage told my team and I a some weeks back..." to this, the slightly aging former Kunoichi could do nothing but stand slightly higher at being praised by her hokage, even if second hand. The hokage saw this and smiled internally at how Naruto took control of the situation without violence, but knew today was a day where violence was likely going to arise around Uzumaki Naruto. A good trait in a potential chunin being able to defuse a situation like that, he considered. "Seeing as you are of the Uzumaki clan, did you study our clan's top jutsu source?"

She thought for a moment, and then answered, "No. I was one of the rare ones who didn't find Fuinjutsu all that interesting. Why do you ask Uzumaki-san," she asked with as much respect as she could muster, again to the approval of the hokage who nodded at her as such. She felt like a Kunoichi who did well on a mission. She missed that feeling.

Naruto nodded and then explained, "Kushina Uzumaki, my kaa-chan was known throughout the elemental nations as the Red Hot Habanero. But not many lived long enough to realize how she fought. " Naruto stated as he tried to listen to the clues his mother was leaving him. Sadly he was not used to trying to talk to beings in his body before. Especially not while outside of it. He continued, "And it was known that Minato Namikaze, my father learned and mastered Fuinjutsu as well. That said, who do you think taught him? It's rhetorical as this adds up. Well, my kaa-chan did. That was her greatest ally in battle. She was the one who helped Jiraiya improve his own so much; taking him from a mere expert to an apprentice master status. Well, my otou-san was one of two who fought the fox. My mother was the second after he placed a barrier up to keep everyone else out. Very few of you know this, but my mother held the fox before me, and Uzumaki Mito before her. I am sure none of your thought they were the fox personified. You all just wanted a scapegoat as a lot of people lost loved ones in that battle. I understand. I don't forgive all of you that mistreated me. Nobody's that nice... but I understand and will try not to hold it against you all. But the simple thing is this. I am essentially a bottle. The kyuubi is sake. Are they one and the same? No. Can the fox control me? Not really, although if I get pissed enough, I tend to draw on his powers a bit. Jiraiya-sensei was doing his best to help me learn how to harness them in protection of the village. But after the sword fiasco, we opted to stop for the day," which drew in a few minor chuckles from those who realized it was a joke. Then he looked at Haruno Mebuki again and said, "As long as Haruno Sakura wears one of these," he pointed at the band across his head, "I will protect her and everyone that headband symbolizes. I hope that one day you and I can come to an understanding." Much to his surprise, she raised her hand out and he took it in a firm handshake. There was applause. It surprised all of the leadership, and even some of the normally hateful civilians.

"Well, if you all are this happy over that, maybe I should continue and tell you the sword purified the fox. All of his hatred has been purged, and we even found out it was some rogue Uchiha who made him attack the village. It was not just him going on a rampage."

"Enough of your lies boy!" a man stood up out of his chair, his face bandaged, his arm in a sling, bandaged as well. "Show us this so called magic sword. And show some gratitude. You are lucky we let you live after Minato sealed the fox turning you into the fox."

Naruto looked back at the hokage, but before he could answer, the man said, "Now boy!"

Naruto laughed a vicious laugh. "Oh, I got the memo on you too, and I don't like you Shimura Danzo. Much more importantly, I don't trust you. Especially now. You are a fuinjutsu expert from what my dad told me. So you know good and damn well I am not the fox. I don't know what your game is, but I am not one to be screwed over. Not anymore! And if I was a real jackass I would be going on and on about how you you be down on your knees kissing my ass thanking me for keeping the mighty fox at bay, saving everyone's life. Oh yeah, not to mention, you look like a creeper. Someone who stalks little girls and boys. Get bent bitch."

One moment before, Kakashi who was sitting outside the window who was sitting on the flat side surface of the wall reading his Icha Icha book stepped inside. The Hokage and Jiraiya already knew he was there, but his stealth was not to be underestimated as no one else knew he was there. He sensed something amiss about to go down.

Kakashi stopped beside his hokage who stated, "Good of you to join us Kakashi."

"My pleasure Hokage-sama. So, is a fight about to break out?"

"I think your student might just try to take on a Kage level Nin." Jiraiya stated.

"The room went completely silent after Jiraiya's last comment. No one ever called Shimura Danzo, the Darkness of Konoha out like that and lived to tell the tale. No one dared to move. The Hokage, Jiraiya and even Kakashi's eyes were watering, fighting back the tears and explosions of laughter that threatened to tear through their many years of mental shinobi training.

Jiraiya coped by deflecting and whispered to Hiruzen, "Hey sensei, where are your old teammates anyway. Usually they take Danzo's side in big messes like this.

Hiruzen snorted and said, "That's why I sent them on an errand to the capital right before I called this meeting."

Akimichi Chouza, red haired leader of the Akimichi clan could take it no longer, and burst out laughing. "I like this kid!" he laughed harder. "He had the balls to say that to Shimura Danzo!" which only served to anger Danzo further.

Naruto then looked at Danzo, going way off script, but his anger flared as he said, "You just tried to throw me under the building, most likely to pass whatever agenda you have. So let's do this by way of the Old Guard of shinobi. You want to see the sword?" Naruto slowly pulled his jacket back again and drew the sword to his hand, and added a touch of chakra to the hilt to increase his grip. He entered into a half horse stance, but placed his sword in a two handed upper stance. It was still in it's short form, but still emanated that feeling of raw power.

"Hokage-sama?" Tsume of the Inuzuka asked. "No. Let Naruto do this. We need to see just what this sword can do. Should it get out of hand, we may possibly intervene."

Essentially, Naruto realized, the hokage just gave him permission to go wild. Naruto glared at the mummy like man and said, "You talked a bit of shit, lets see if you can back It up. Come at me!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Quick FYI. I forgot to mention, this story is a bit of a Crack fic, so it won't always be the most logical. It might even be silly in some areas, but that's just to make the story a bit more fun.
> 
> To be continued. Long story short... You all got me a decent amount of faves and follows, plus five reviews. I figured you deserved something for your hard work. So not only did I not do a 3000 word chapter like I said initially, nor did I wait until December. Hope you all appreciate the 11,801 words just for you. PS. Things are about to finally get serious, this time likely really in December! Bwahahaha! Dattebayo!


	3. The Gama; Part One

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I got inspired and gave you all another 4496 word chapter a day later. Still longer than my initially planned 3000 word chapter. Haha. But I am taking a break from this story and possibly going to work on my other stuff, or my joint project. This story is taking a while to get the response I wanted. So I will see you all in December or January. Later Dayz.

A touch of madness had hit Konoha a few weeks prior to October as evidenced by a formerly blonde genin stepping forward and challenging one of the most powerful and well respected former generals of Konoha's army in the middle of the large conference room. Naruto stepped on the top of the table directly in front of him, and dropped back down to the floor in the middle of this large group. He was now surrounded by a large oval table with shinobi and civilian alike gawking at him as if he grew an additional five heads. Even the brash civilians were not crazy enough to call out Shimura Danzo. They would likely call down the wrath of the hokage first.

Eight ANBU appeared before Naruto. Naruto's eye's flickered gold for but a second. An 'ANBU swung a ninjato toward him, he ducked, and then flipped back, his foot connecting with the other nin's chin before Naruto gracefully landed. The rest began attacking in earnest, resisting the urge to use jutsu as a stray attack could hit their master.

Naruto still inside of this large oval in the center of the massive table blocked the blows one by one, but near the end of the attack stream, Naruto swung his short sword in a block as his eyes narrowed and in a slightly deeper than normal, but commanding voice proclaimed, "Thunder!" Then another strike parried, "Thunder!" Naruto rolled underneath the kick of a third ANBU and called "Thunder!" Naruto then swung his sword around in a three hundred and sixty degree arc which forced the attackers to jump back a bit as Naruto's last words were heard. "ThunderCats, Ho!"

The encrusted jewel's faded image of a slit eye visibly darkened and became much clearer on both sides of the sword, and the blade grew to it's full size and the guards curled up on the sides. It then transformed into a catlike silhouette and a bright red beam erupted from the sword. It then surrounded Naruto in the form of a red bubble, then blasted smaller red beams from the big red bubble at those who attacked Naruto thus knocking them unconscious. The mask on the six men and two women broke apart and fell to the ground.

Hiruzen was a bit surprised at his ANBU attacking. He recognized their mask. He would have killed them himself, but wanted to know what possibly possessed them to attack Naruto. They might be moles placed in the normal ANBU by Danzo. But after a moment's concentration, he realized, "Jonin, restrain them. These are not my ANBU!"

Kakashi vanished like a thief, and reappeared before the enemy shinobi before they could hope to begin their attack again. He activated his lightning style and reluctantly gave a quick head movement for Naruto to move. He then did a few hand signs and activated a paralysis jutsu.

The jewel inside of Naruto's sword began to flicker, and he felt the need to raise it before his eyes. "Sword of Omens, give me sight beyond sight," he requested. Naruto's guard still not down, but was no doubt slightly preoccupied by what he saw. He lowered the sword until it pointed at Shimura Danzo. It was you! You're the one who commands these fake ANBU. They don't follow the will of the Hokage."

Jiraiya joined Naruto and gently placed his hand on his shoulder and said, "It's okay Naruto. I don't like the old bastard any more than you do, but it will be alright."

"No Jiraiya sensei, it won't. Not as long as that man is allowed to live. I have seen things. He is the reason your last 'team' of students were attacked in Ame. The hidden Rain Village. He teamed up with someone named Hanzo the Salamander.

"Lies!" Danzo screamed in mock outrage. 'I have to get rid of this child and gain control over this sword... and quickly.'

Naruto continued, "That man over there is a traitor! Shimura Danzo has mutilated his arm with a bunch of eyes like Sasuke has. He is using them to make me less likely to be believed. Hyuuga-sama, Kakashi Sensei, and if there is an Aburame available to sense Chakra shifts, you can confirm he is trying to manipulate the room!"

Naruto said, his own arms getting heavy, starting to fall under the power of the genjutsu himself. Fortunately for him, Kakashi and Hiashi, having many years experience and their respective dojutsu managed to see that he was telling the truth and dove into action before Danzo knew what hit him. Some of the shinobi jumped in to help Danzo, but were stopped by a simple making a fist by the Hokage.

"Seal Danzo's chakra. I don't want him to have a chance to get a second wind." He turned to Naruto and said, "These are serious charges Naruto-kun. I will need you to allow a Yamanaka to verify this information. He I will have a second one do the same with Danzo. I will also have another random Yamanaka do the same in case the results are somehow skewed by those who see Danzo as a war hero and might try to under mind your testimony.

A single chakra seal was placed on Danzo by Kakashi. Hyuuga Hiashi managed to shut down forty percent of the old war hawk's chakra network, but still managed to use a wind jutsu to push both the cyclops and the Hyuuga head off. To his surprise, the Aburame clan head's kikaichu bugs surrounded him and quickly latched on to him and drained his remaining Chakra. At least to the point of physical exhaustion.

Danzo's shirt burned off and the kikaichu retreated. Danzo's now bare back shot out visible black waves of wind. Jiraiya took note of it being a seal he recognized. A trap in case he was ever captured. He pricked his finger, and ran through a plethora of hand signs, and forced his way past most of the wind lashing out. He pressed his hand on Danzo's head while being hit by more and more wind attacks.

"Jiraiya!" Hiruzen called out worried for his former pupil. After a few seconds the trap seal was deactivated, and Jiraiya fell with his blood spilling out.

Naruto put his sword away and was about to panic, but he remembered something Jiraiya said when he first started summoning training. He knew something was different about his chakra coils, and hoped it was what he suspected. He had a much greater control over it. Naruto bit his finger, and pulled forth all of his remaining Chakra that he could find within him and focused it into a single spot as he called forth, "Kuchiyose no Jutsu! Summoning- great sages of Myoboku, Fukasaku and Shima-sama!"

Naruto slammed his hand onto the ground and two small elderly toads appeared and first took note of Naruto who fell to his knees. They saw the insignia on his shirt, and saw the sword he carried. They looked at each other, then saw Jiraiya. They prepared to attack Naruto to protect the man who was like a son to him.

Hiruzen saw this and called out, "Wait Sennin-dono!" Recognizing the voice of Jiraiya's sensei, they turned to him, and demanded, "What the hell is going on here Professor-kun?"

Naruto's weak and weary voice then spoke, "I summoned you. Please save- Super Ero-sensei." Naruto then passed out.

Shima raced over to Jiraiya and started medical procedures to try to save his life. The other sage however was nearly explosive in his anger, which was extremely out of character for him. "Jiraiya let this boy sign our contract? What was he thinking?! The ThunderCats and our Mutant Ancestors were the greatest of Enemies!"

"Please calm down Toad-sage. It was not Naruto who did that to Jiraiya. He actually managed to summon you before we could have hoped to get a Iryo nin here to try to help him..."

They were interrupted by Shima, "We need Tsunade. His internal organs have been stabilized for the time being, but he won't last a day without someone of her skill. I have also applied some special toad oil to speed the healing process, but without her, it won't likely be enough."

She then turned to Naruto and asked, "Are you Minato's tadpole?"

Naruto tilted his head as much as he could to get the okay from the hokage. Upon getting a visual cue to reveal the truth, he forced himself into the seize position and nodded his head.

"I doubt you would have his hiraishin, else we would have heard something about that long ago. But you might be able to track a seal he placed on Tsunade many years ago due to you having his blood, and Tsunade being part Uzumaki."

Naruto was intrigued and asked, "How can I hel..." But was cut off by a message from his father. 'Naruto, if you can get the chakra, I think I can get you to her to try to help Jiraiya. But only three others with you or the flying thunder god portal will not stay stabilized.

"Um, guys, I just got a message saying if I can recharge my chakra I can get us to get us to that seal. Myself, Jiraiya, and the two sages."

Fukasaku was clearly not pleased but said, "Only if you leave that forsaken sword."

Naruto immediately said, "Not happening. It purified a large darkness within me and I am not abandoning it just because you, someone I don't know said so. The only reason I summoned you is because Jiraiya trusted you, and I find myself trusting him after his act of heroism in potentially saving us all... despite some things he's done recently. Was I wrong to trust in him?"

Fukasaku could not believe someone would be so brash... except for Jiraiya in his youth. That thought broke him of his building anger just long enough to say, "Hiruzen-chan. We need Naruto to attempt to save Jiraiya-chan. Do we have your authorization to take him from the village to save one of Konoha's most beloved defenders?"

Kakashi, while still pissed at Naruto's calling him out after the wave mission would not hold it against the boy trying to help save his sensei's own sensei. "As his team captain, I approve. I also have two chakra seals which should give him a boost. More so than a soldier pill."

Naruto's mouth nearly dropped open at Kakashi's behavior. His own strength actually already returning due to Kurama silently refilling Naruto's chakra stores. "Thank you sensei, but my chakra is already back to eighty percent and rising. Normally it wouldn't so fast, but my chakra coils have been strengthened a bit too. I don't know everything in detail, but I can explain better once we return," and avoided the fact that the sword partially re-energized him, he turned to Hiruzen and stated, "On your orders Hokage-sama."

"Gama-senin, do I have your word that your will protect Naruto as he is a Konoha shinobi and allied to the Toads... at this time." He hokage asked. Both toads reluctantly nodded. "Then As hokage of the Hidden Leaf, I Sarutobi Hiruzen, upon reviewing Uzumaki Naruto's mission history and the fact that he has not once, but now possibly twice revealed a traitor in the Konoha forces, I hereby entrust Uzumaki Naruto the temporary rank of Chunin and this B-rank Mission. Find Senju Tsunade and convince her to heal the Gama Sennin no Sannin. Uzumaki Naruto... Move out!"

Naruto flipped up to his feet and to attention as he said, "Yes sir!"

"Kakashi, Place a stasis seal on Jiraiya. You're the only one here with enough experience I trust to place the seal now that Jiraiya is... not available." his voice almost broke.

"Yes sir. And Naruto, take these scrolls. There is enough food and supplies for a single shinobi for a three week mission."

Again, surprised, he thanked his team captain. Then Naruto knelt and placed his hands out in a peaceful manner toward Fukasaku and Shima who'd rejoined her husband. They reluctantly took their place on his shoulders. Naruto leaned down beside the now stasis induced Jiraiya. He closed his eyes and felt a seal appear on his hand. He closed his eyes and spoke at nearly a whisper.

"I hope you know what you're doing dad." giving a bit of control of his body to the disembodied form of his father. The next thing anyone heard from Naruto was something no one ever thought they would hear again after nearly fourteen years ago. Naruto placed his hitai-ite in his jacket's largest pocket in case he appeared in enemy territory. "Space-time Release: Hiraishin no Jutsu!"

A golden flash appeared, then where Naruto and the three toad sages once were was an empty space.

Tsume Inuzuka howled out, "HOLY SHIT! The little bastard really is their kid?!"

Even with everything else that happened, everyone still had a slight bit of doubt. But after that display, no one would ever doubt again just who's son Uzumaki Naruto was. Story of the sword be damned. He was the son of some of the Leaf's greatest heroes and most treated him like dirt or ignored him.

Gambling Den Hotel, Edge of the Village hidden in the grass.

The busty blonde, green wearing Tsunade felt a jolt from her back. A jolt she hadn't felt in nearly twenty years. She felt her chakra charge. It wasn't a bad feeling, as she was feeling a bit sluggish from a long day anyway and it cleared her mind from all of the alcohol she drank throughout the day. She looked around, but didn't see anyone, but she did sense two incredibly powerful chakra sources. Sennin Chakra if she wasn't mistaken. She decided to investigate it. She looked outside of her hotel window to see a boy with reddish colored hair slammed against a wall with what looked like two toads on his shoulder. It would have been humorous if she had not seen the mangled body of her former teammate beside them.

Her general lack of caring was pushed to the back burner by her inner scientist who wanted to know what the heck was going on. She opened the window and called down, "Lady Shima, Lord Fakusaku?"

"Ugh," they complained, "Never travel Hiraishin again. But did we just hear Tsunade-chan?" Shima asked.

"Up here," Tsunade called again. What happened to the pervert? Oh nevermind. Just bring him up. I can get paid for fixing him up right?"

'Same ole Tsunade,' the old sages thought happily. Naruto groaned as he shook off the pain of the fall. "I have got to learn how to land," reminded of his fall into the ravine.

Five minutes later, Tsunade's room.

She had already summoned her black haired assistant she called Shizune to assist her. Much to the annoyance of everyone involved in transporting Jiraiya, Shizune was the one who started on Jiraiya once he was freed from the Stasis seal.

Tsunade's reply, "She's my apprentice for a reason," though she failed to mention that she could not deal with jiraiya's bloody attire currently.

After nearly an hour, Naruto was healed from the massive Chakra exhaustion and a few minor bone fractures from slamming up against the wall from a misfire of the Hiraishin. Plus Tsunade fixed a few more old bones that not heal correctly while Naruto was asleep.

A few hours later, Naruto found himself awake, and alone in a room he didn't recognize. He checked and realized his sword was still with him in addition to his ninja supplies. He walked out of the room and took note of the grown ups talking save for Jiraiya who was on the couch and his skin appeared mostly sealed up, and barely any markings at all. Not even scars, just a bit red. Naruto looked at Tsunade and her assistant in a bit of awe.

He went to introduce himself, but stopped himself when Tsunade immediately glared at him. "Whoa. Slow your role lady. What did I do to you to deserve a glare like that?"

She answered equally bitter, "Who the hell gave you permission to use Minato's seal to come to me?"

"I don't answer to you Senju-san. I was just following orders to get my sensei healed."

"I'm one of the Sannin, and I am giving you an order. What, genin? Chunin?"

"I am Temporary-chunin Uzumaki Naruto charged with finding you and acquiring your services by the old man. I mean sandaime hokage-sama. Wait a minute. You're the one I saw... In my sword when that white haired guy died on the battlefield. The one Danzo had killed. You looked so battered and broken." he said sadly.

Tsunade's rant immediately stopped upon that last sentence. She'd been torturing herself over who had killed Dan for more than twenty years. She had to make sure she heard correctly. "Shima-san seems to think you have came across a special artifact. The legendary Sword of Omens. A sword known to give sight beyond sight."

Naruto was getting pissed at everyone learning about his sword so soon, and glared slightly at the older female toad who's husband stepped in front of her defensively. Naruto sighed and stated, "I came across it, yes. Why do you ask?"

"Is that sword how you saw me before and how you knew of my former love Dan?" Tsunade asked as patiently as she could.

"It is. And as far as Danzo goes, please don't go on some rampant revenge driven crusade. Thanks to this sword and training under Ero-Gama sennin sensei, along with Danzo's own greed, he's been arrested and likely thrown under the jail by now."

"Do you have proof that it was Danzo aside from what your sword showed you?"

"The Yamanaka are likely going to scan his brain, and heck, mine for that matter once we get home. You are more than welcome to tag along. The old man would probably like to see you. And who knows. You might get to see your former lover avenged officially as it was Danzo who ordered his secret army of ninja to eliminate him. He tried to have the same done to Orochimaru and my otou-san if I am reading this right."

Tsunade was confused until at first and asked, "Why would he... That son of a bitch!" Tsunade's face reddened and the jewel on her forehead started to glow a bit. "I take it you figured something out," Naruto inquired smartly, but not too much so as Jiraiya informed him of what Tsunade was capable of when pissed.

"They were all in contention for the position of Yondaime Hokage. Dan, Minato, Orochimaru, and Danzo. Danzo was trying to edge out the competition. But Sarutobi-sensei didn't quite trust him. He still picked Minato, and made sure to keep Minato on missions that Danzo didn't know about. He tried to do the same for Dan. Team Sarutobi were alongside him. So Dan was the only one he could get to... It all makes so much sense now. Sensei had better kill that son of a bitch... or I wi... no. I can't leave this up to chance. SHIZUNE! Get your butt in here and get packing. We're heading home!"

The beautiful assistant literally fell over. She glanced at the dark red haired boy and asked, "Are you the reason we get to visit home?" Naruto smiled a bit and shrugged.

Naruto then turned to the toad sages and his eyes narrowed and said, "Before we go home, we need to talk. Please walk with me for a few minutes. You have my word as a shinobi of Konoha that I have no intention of doing harm to either of you, but your attitude towards me is making me very angry and we need to get whatever the problem is out in the air... and now." Brokering no room for argument.

Shima looked to her husband for his thoughts. Many years of marriage allowed them to come to an understanding without words. They both walked over to a suspicious Naruto, but he placed his arms out again for them to climb up after a few seconds, and realized their intent.

Ten Minutes Later atop another hotel

"Well, lets start with this. Officially, I am Uzumaki Naruto, son of Minato Namikaze and Uzumki Kushina. I am a genin of Konohagakure no Sato under the direct command of Jonin Taicho Hatake Kakashi and teamed with Uchiha Sasuke and Haruno Sakura. I am pretty sure you already sense I am also the Jinchuriki of the Kyuubi no Yoko. None of this seems to phase you at all. As if nothing I am saying comes as a surprise at all. But the next part is probably what is bothering you. Jiraiya gave me a chance to sign the summoning contract of the toads which in and of itself is not such a problem... but after signing the contract, I came across the legendary Sword of Omens, and have since been Chosen by it to create and lead a new team of ThunderCats."

Naruto saw it immediately. Fear. Fear unlike anything he'd ever seen before. The fear rolled off of them in waves. "What is it? I am not evil. Heck, the sword helped me cleanse a lot of evil that was in my heart to be honest. And the ThunderCats stand for Truth, Justice, Loyalty, and Honor. They have for at least the last few generations of ThunderCats."

That last line caught their attention rather quickly. "Last few generations?" Shima asked quietly.

"Yeah. I have been in contact with the former leader of the ThunderCats on and off throughout the day and learning what I can about this sword and What being a ThunderCats, much less the new lord Entails. I found that some of the earlier incarnations of the were not the nicest, and were even considered conquerors, but a kind about fifteen hundred years ago started to make changes, but the mutants, or reptile planet plundarr, and those who lived here continued to war despite the wanting to end the war once and for all. It was an evil named Mumm-ra who kept egging on Both sides it seemed."

"Well, our history is written a little differently. Our ancestors hailed from planet Plundarr. We only know that the ThunderCats were our oppressors. So you see why we are hesitant to trust you Uzumaki Naruto." Fukasaku said, calm but guarded.

"Hm... Okay. I can't speak for Konoha as I am not authorized to do so, but But I guess as my first official order of business as lord of the ThunderCats... or ThunderCat of one for now I guess. I offer an official truce to the Toads of Mt. Myoboku. And I offer my sword as an Ally to you all as long as you are allied to myself via the Toad Contract."

"I'm sorry Naruto-san, but we are no longer the heads of the Toads. You will have to speak to Gamabunta for that, but I don't believe it will be a problem."

They agreed to find a spot with a lot more room to summon Gamabunta.

Once in an open field, Gamabunta was summoned via Shima and the situation was explained to him.

"While it seems like a very generous offer, what will prevent you from becoming like the Thunderians of old. The more barbaric conquerors and try to force us to your will?"

Naruto sat down legs crossed, completely at a loss as he'd never been in a position like this before. Never in a position of leadership where his decisions could make such a powerful impact. He closed his eyes for a moment and asked if Lion-o was around.

Fortunately at that moment, he appeared before Naruto... as a silhouette in the outside world. The three toads looked at him but stayed their weapons as Lion-o sat in front of Naruto. "You do know I am only supposed to advise on the bare basics right. You wear the big boy shoes now kid. I am just here to get you started. I won't be able to help you again for a while if I just give you the answer here. So it's up to you if you want me to help you join in minds and hearts."

Naruto smirked. He knew what Lion-o did. He helped him without actually giving away anything. "No. Thank you Lion-o -sama. I believe I know how to proceed." Lion-o stood, turned toward the three toads, and bowed. He wasn't really too sure of the etiquette of this world, but knew that bowing seemed important in showing respect. He then faded away.

"Would you all accept being Honorary ThunderCats? It will not only grant you ThunderCat status, but it will place you under my protection as I seem to be under yours with the Gama Kuchiyose contract. I don't know exactly how we could amend the contract, but I do believe it would be mutually beneficial. Is that Acceptable Boss Toad? I am willing to try if you are. But try to shield yourself. I want to use the Black Lion from my sword to solidify the bond, and I don't want it to cause you any discomfort."

Bunta looked down to the elder toads and asked, "Hey Ma, Pa, Can you link us up please? Like Jiraiya, I am still having trouble finishing my sage training. I do believe Sage Mode will protect me long enough for this ceremony to complete."

Five minutes Later Naruto stood across the field as Tsunade, A now awoken Jiraiya, and a slightly excited Shizune stood. Tsunade said, "Make this quick kid. Myself, and Jiraiya knew about that damn signal. Who do you think taught us and when? If we know about it, I am sure our third teammate and enemy to Konoha Orochimaru remembers it too.

A shiver ran down Naruto's back concerning the mention of the Snake sanin. He shook it off and nodded his acknowledgment of her words. He then held up the Sword of Omens and spoke to the sword, "I don't know if you are really alive. I just know that you have helped me and changed my very world. I ask for your help once again, not as a boon, but as a way to help in creating a new union. A great and hopefully everlasting friendship with the Toads of Mt. Myoboku."

The sword's eye glowed for but a second. Naruto smiled as it felt almost like palpable love. He then raised it up toward the sky and yelled out, "Thunder, Thunder, Thunder. ThunderCats, Ho!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To Be continued in late December, or January. Ja ne!

**Author's Note:**

> For those of you who skipped it earlier:
> 
> We as writers work hard on these stories for you. Not only us, but for you the reader. The success of this story IS based on Reviews, first and foremost. I am trying to make it to over one thousand reviews. I know that is a lot to ask, but in exchange, I will do my very best to make this the best Naruto/ThunderCats crossover it possibly can be, and I will push to get chapters out faster. I will not beg for reviews chapter by chapter, but if I do get a decent amount, I will push forward to get a new chapter out before the scheduled release date. So show some love. It would be appreciated.
> 
> To be continued... In ThunderCats Ho! Chapter 2 in December 20, 2016... if I don't get it posted sooner.
> 
> PS. Questions left unanswered this chapter will be cleared up in the next one... maybe. Depends on how much I want to reveal just yet. ;)


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